Feasgar math a h-uile duine.

[Eoin Dubh]

Càit an lorg mi duine a bhios ag obair am seo?

An Earnaid Shith
Uainidh mi an earnaid,

le earlaid a bruth,
Chur barrlait air gach ainreit, Fad 's earnaid i.

Earnaid shith, earnaid shith,
Mo niarach an neach dh' am bi,
Ni bheil ni mu iadhadh grein,
Nach bheil di-se le buaidh reidh.

Buainidh mi a chraobh urramach
Bhuain Moire mhor, Mathair chobhair an t-sluaigh,
Chur dhiom gach sgeula sguana, sgulanach
Dim-bith, dim-baigh, dim-buaidh,
Fuailisg, guailisg, duailisg, doilisg,
Gun teid mi dh' an fhuar lie fo'n talamh.

From Garmina Gadelica, Vol. II

Let's work on a translation. This was collected in the 1800's so older dictionaries are good as the incantation is most likely much older. Take it a line at a time and let's see what we can come up with. Irish speakers are invited to have a go also as I think that the languages were still fairly close at this period.

[Megli]

Sure! Not got a grammar with me so here goes...


An Earnaid Shith
The Invocation of Peace/The Fairies [I reserve jugdement as to which it is till we have translated more!]

Uainidh mi an earnaid,

'I something-or-other the invocation...'

le earlaid an bruth

'with expectation of a bruise/anything hot/a hair of the head'
[depends if there's an accent or not on bruth - I note there are no accents anywhere in the text, so we'll have to add them.]

[Eoin Dubh]

I have a few minutes so I will give it a try:

An Earnaid Shìth
The Fairy Wort

Uainidh mi an earnaid,
something me the fairy wort,

le earlaid a bruth,
With expectation from the fairy hillock.

Chur barrlait air gach ainreit,
Without check upon every confusion,

Fad 's earnaid i.
As long it is fairy wort.

Carmicheal's translation follows:

The Fairy Wort

Pluck will I the fairy wort,
With expectation from the fairy bower,
To overcome every oppression,
As long as it be fairy wort.

I used Dwelly's dictionary mostly along with a reprint of Alexander Macbain's dictionary and An Stor-data Briathrachais Gaidhlig to try to translate this. I would guess that he may either have been playing a bit loose in his translations or the folks who he was getting this material from out in the Hebrides didn't bother with dictionaries.

The word bruth in the third line is listed thus:

bruth, -a, pl. bruithean, s.f. see brugh.

brugh, bruighne, bruighnean, s.m. Large house. 2. Village. 3. Tower. 4. Fortified town. 5. Fairy hillock. 6. Tumulus. 7. Cave. 8. House half under the surface. 9. #Fort. Sith bhrugh, a fairy hillock.

I still am not sure that the word Uainidh means. He uses it as pluck or cull in different incantations, always as the first word.

[Beith]

HI Eoin & Megli,

I was just looking at the word "Uainidh" and then at the translation given.
I don't have Scots gallic but wondered if it might be a phonetic rendering of the verb "Bain"?  as in "Bhain me" ~ I plucked/ extracted/took off/out

I went through the Old Irish DIL to see if I could anything pertaining to a root word "Ua(i)n" but couldn't and it didn't resonate with the mod Irish I learned, but then the phonetics hit me - because the bh can be pronounced "v" or "w" in some dialects (just as ua is a "oo" or 'w') sound.

just speculating on a possibility? maybe of course it's a "real verb" in it's own right and not a phonetic rendering, but just a thought!

Beith

[Eoin Dubh]

I think that you got it in one Beith. The typesetting is the problem. There is an illustrated capital in front of UAINIDH that could be a lowercase b. Or not. And in other incantations the same word has a different illustration. But within the text further into the poem is buainidh which is translated as I will pluck.

Dwelly's says:

buain, pr. pt., a' buain, [& a' buaineadh] v.a. Mow, reap, cut don, 2. Shear. 3. Pluch, tearby the root.

[Beith]

yay! Do I win a prize? sprig of heather? highland fling lessons? designer tartan? Bain/Buain makes more sense to me in context of the translation given. Good luck with that and well done on the parts you have translated.
Beith

[Eoin Dubh]

Yes Beith you do win a custom tartan. Here is a picture of the Nic Beith shoe hunting tartan:

[Beith]

Perfect! it matches my eyes....!

(and purple stiletto-heeled flip-flops)


Beith