Play recording: Peigín Leitir Móir
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- Teideal (Title): Peigín Leitir Móir.
- Uimhir Chatalóige Ollscoil Washington (University of Washington Catalogue Number): 853909.
- 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.
- Catagóir (Category): song.
- Ainm an té a thug (Name of Informant): Joe Heaney.
- Ainm an té a thóg (Name of Collector): Lucy Simpson.
- Dáta an taifeadta (Recording Date): 29/01/1980.
- Suíomh an taifeadta (Recording Location): Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America.
- Ocáid an taifeadta (Recording Occasion): private.
- Daoine eile a bhí i láthair (Others present): unavailable.
- Stádas chóipcheart an taifeadta (Recording copyright status): unavailable.
This is a song about a little baby, about six months old. And to anybody who didn’t understand what the song was about, to listen to it, to understand the words of it, you’d swear it was a song composed for a beautiful young woman… and the child was only six months old. And she was so nice, so beautiful, that the… poet, or whoever composed the song, was doing her justice before her time. But she, according to everybody, she deserved it.
Ó, gairim gairim í agus gairim í go deo
Míle grá le m’anam í, sí Peigín Leitir Móir1.
Éirigh suas, a Pheigín, seas ar bharr an áird
‘S comhairigh do chuid bullán agus féach an bhfuil siad ann.
Éirigh suas a Pheigín, mara bhfuil tú tinn
Comhairigh do chuid bullán agus féach an bhfuil siad cruinn.
Dhá bhfeicfeá Colm Thomáis thuas ar an ngarraí bán
Ag fanacht leis an ainnir nó go bhfaigheadh sé cúpla crann2.
Tá iascairí na Gaillimhe feistithe ar an ród
Ag súil le oíche ghealaigh nó go bhfeice siad an tseod.
That means, ‘all the fisherman in Galway is waiting for a chance until the moon come out that they’d come ashore and look at her’.
…Ag súil le oíche ghealaigh nó go bhfeice siad an tseod.
Tá Seán agam, tá Cáit agam, sí Peig an bhean is fearr
Hé bith áit a rachaidh mé, ní fhillfidh mé go brách.
Translation
Oh, I acclaim her forever!
A thousand loves with my soul, she is Peggy of Lettermore1.
Get up, Peggy, and stand on the top of the hill;
Count your bullocks and see if they’re all there.
Get up, Peggy, if you’re not unwell;
Count your bullocks and make sure they’re together.
If you saw Colm Thomáis up in the untilled garden,
Waiting for the fair one in the hope of getting a few trees2
The fishermen of Galway are prepared to go to sea,
Hoping for a moon-lit night so that they might see the jewel.
I have Seán and I have Kate, but Peg’s the best woman of all;
Wherever I go, I’ll never return again.
Notes
1. Leitir Móir is an island south-east of Carna, about eight miles as the crow flies. But as Joe observes elsewhere, you can’t get there as the crow flies. The distance is at least twice that by sea and longer still by land.
2. Crann is a peculiar choice of word here. Joe may simply have put it in for the sake of the rhyme, knowing that Lucy was in no position to correct him. On another occasion the line went: ag faire ar an ainnir go bhfaigheadh sé cúpla póg (watching for the pretty girl that he might get a few kisses).