Line 4. Is and nad bi mui na tai. Muisse is in old Irish the
possessive of the first sing when followed by a noun it becomes mo,
when not so followed it is mui; tai is also found for do. O'Curry gave
this line as "there is no sorrow nor care."
Lines 7 and 10. Is li sula lin ar sluag and is li sula ugai luin are
so similar that is li sula must mean the same in both, and cannot mean
"splendour of eyes" in the first case unless it does so in the second.
The idea in the first case seems to be that the hosts are reflected in
the eyes; it is so rendered in the verse translation. A blackbird's
egg has a blue ground, but is so thickly powdered with brown spots of
all shapes that it looks brown at a distance. At first I was inclined
to take the idea to be "hazel" eyes, but comparing line 7, it seems
more likely that the idea is that all sorts of shapes appear in the
pupil.
Line 12. The translation of annam as a "wilderness" is very doubtful,
it more probably is "seldom"; and the line should be "seldom will it be
so after knowledge of, &c."
Line 16. This has always been rendered "no youth there grows to old
age." But the Irish is ni thecht oac and re siun, and re siun can only
mean "before an old (man)." The sense possibly is, that as men do not
become feeble with advancing years, the younger man has not the same
advantage over his elders in the eyes of women that he has in this
world.
Line 17. Teith millsi, "smooth and honey-sweet" (Meyer, MacCongl., p.
196).
Line 24. Compare a story of some magical pigs that could not be
counted accurately (Revue Celtique, vol. xiii. p. 449).
Line 31. Muc ur, "unsalted pork"; see Glossary to Laws, p. 770; also
MacConglinne (Kuno Meyer), p, 99.
PAGE 27
Line 23. "He ascended." Fosrocaib for sosta: fosrocaib is an unknown
compound (=fo-sro-od-gaib). Perhaps frisocaib for sosta, "mounted on
the heights."
Line 29. Co brainni a da imdae, "to the edges of his two shoulders";
see braine, in Meyer's Contributions.
PAGE 28.
Line 19. "Casting their light on every side," cacha air di = cacha
airidi, "in every direction."
Line 25. "If thou dost obtain the forfeit of my stake," mad tu beras
mo thocell. For tocell see Zimmer, Kuhn's Zeitsch., xxx. 80.
Line 29. "Eager" (?), femendae. See Bruiden da Derga (Stokes), 50, 51.
Line 30. "Easily stopped," so-ataidi suggested for sostaidi in the
text: cf. Bruiden da Derga. The conjecture has not Strachan's
authority.
PAGE 29
Line 19. Literal translation of rhetoric: "Put it in hand, place it
close in hand, noble are oxen for hours after sunset, heavy is the
request, it is unknown to whom the gain, to whom the loss from the
causeway."
Line 28. "Over the chariot-pole of life" seems to be a literal
rendering of for fertas in betha. Strachan renders "on the face of the
world," which is of course the meaning of the simile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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