Casadh an tSúgáin (1)

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  • Teideal (Title): Casadh an tSúgáin (1).
  • Uimhir Chatalóige Ollscoil Washington (University of Washington Catalogue Number): 840113.
  • Uimhir Chnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann (National Folklore of Ireland Number): none.
  • Uimhir Roud (Roud Number): none.
  • Uimhir Laws (Laws Number): none.
  • Uimhir Child (Child Number): none.
  • Cnuasach (Collection): Joe Heaney Collection, University of Washington, Seattle.
  • Teanga na Croímhíre (Core-Item Language): Irish and English.
  • Catagóir (Category): song, story.
  • Ainm an té a thug (Name of Informant): Joe Heaney.
  • Ainm an té a thóg (Name of Collector): unavailable.
  • Dáta an taifeadta (Recording Date): 22/11/1983.
  • Suíomh an taifeadta (Recording Location): University of Washington, United States of America.
  • Ocáid an taifeadta (Recording Occasion): evening class.
  • Daoine eile a bhí i láthair (Others present): unavailable.
  • Stádas chóipcheart an taifeadta (Recording copyright status): unavailable.

Well now, this is a very interesting story. You could call it love, maybe — and maybe you wouldn’t call it love. Casadh an tSúgáin — ‘The Twisting of the Rope’. The rope that they’re talking about, it’s the rope they used to tie down the thatched cottages long ago. The way they used to do it, you had some straw or hay, and you came up, and you got a bit of a stick, and I was sitting here with the straw. And you put the stick into the straw and started twisting it and backing away like this, now [demonstrates]. Get me? And I’d be letting out the straw to you, until the rope was long enough to be cut; and then you’d start another rope, and tie them up until the day you were thatching the house.

Well, this fellow was in love with this particular girl, and there was only the girl and the mother in the house. And people say the mother was a bit jealous because he fancied the daughter; the daughter fancied the fellow, and the mother fancied the fellow, and the fellow fancied the daughter and he didn’t fancy the mother — let me put it that way. But anyway, he was going around from place to place, you know, moaning his loss, ’til one night he says to himself, ‘I may as well make a bee-line for this house again’. So in he goes, and when the old lady saw him coming, she said ‘I don’t want — I don’t like this at all’. And he was sitting down, and he said to the old woman, ‘I like your daughter’, he said, ‘Ma’am. Suppose if I married your daugher, what kind of a dowry would she get?’ (Cén spré a bheadh ag d’iníon, a chailligh?) And the old woman started tapping her foot. And she said — I can’t write this down, this is something I cannot write — stráca an phota is mar sin. Stráca an phota is the old thing that used to lift up the pot off the fire. Was made… of wool or something, or knitted like a sock and pulled on. And she said, [sings] ‘Stráca an phota is mar sin’. And then she started tapping her feet. When an old woman… starts like this, it’s dangerous:

[lilting]

‘Now, suppose if I married yourself, woman — dhá bpósfainn thú féin, a chailligh, cén spré a bheadh a’d — what dowry would you have?’ ‘Bheadh pluideannaí agus leabrachaí agus ‘chuile [indistinct] agus beithigh a’m — I’d have sheets, I’d have blankets, I’d have cattle and everything else’, and then she’d break into this:

[faster lilting]

‘Now, a chailligh, is fearr liom d’iníon ná thú féin — I prefer your daughter.’

[very slow lilting]

…and she was getting ahold of the tongs at the same time.

[more slow lilting]

‘Well, a mháistreás’, he said, ‘I want to marry your daughter’. And she said, ‘Well’, she said — she was thinking as she was playing the tune. ‘You know what’, she said, ‘you’re a nice-looking fellow’. She said, ‘The house outside —’ and there was nothing in the world wrong with the house — ‘The scraw’, she said, ‘the thatch is rising up with wind. Would you twist a little rope for me until we tie down the house?’ And he said, ‘Surely!’ Now he thought she had turned to him. And she got the straw… and she was well able to do this. And he got a stick, and he started twisting the rope. And she told the daughter, ‘Open the door, Mary’, she said, ‘for I want to make a long rope’. And he was going out, and out. See, in the countryside, in the country houses you don’t tell anybody to get out unless they get out-of-hand altogether. And she had another way of doing it. And he went out, and out, and when she saw him well outside the door, she cut the rope, and closed the door and locked him out.

Now there is two ways of singing this song… One of them is sort of laughing at the joke, and the other one is crying over the joke. It all depends on where you come from. This is one of them.

Má bhíonn tú liom, bí liom a ghrá ghil mo chroí
Má bhíonn tú liom, bí liom ós comhair lán an tí
Má bhíonn tú liom, is gur liom gach órlach in do chroí
Is é mó thrua le fonn nach liom Dé Domhnaigh thú mar mhnaoi.

Tá mo cheann-sa liath, ní le haois a liath sé
Mo cháirde gaoil do mo lua le bean gan aon spré
Ó, táim i do dhiaidh le bliain, níl fáil agam ort féin
Gur geall le fia ar shliabh mé a mbeadh gáir con ‘na déidh

Now, that’s one version — that’s one way of singing it. Now, the other way:

Má bhíonn tú liom, bí liom ós comhair lán an tí
Má bhíonn tú liom, bí liom de ló geal is d’oíche
Má bhíonn tú liom, is gur liom gach órlach in do chroí
Is é mó thrua le fonn nach liom Dé Domhnaigh thú mar mhnaoi.

Tá mo cheann-sa liath, is ní le críonnacht a liath sé
Ach mo cháirde gaoil do mo lua le bean gan aon spré
Ó, táim i do dhiaidh le bliain, níl fáil agam ort féin
Gur geall le fia ar shliabh mé a mbeadh gáir con ‘na déidh.

Translation

If you’re with me, be with me, darling of my heart
If you’re with me, be with me in the presence of all in the house
If you’re with me, and if you’re with me in every inch of your heart
It’s my regret that you’re not with me on Sunday as my wife.

My head is gray, and it’s not age that’s made it so
But my nearest and dearest mentioning me with a woman of no dowry
I’ve been after you for a year, without getting you
Until I’m like a deer on the mountain with the baying of hounds after it.