{"id":1190,"date":"2016-01-17T09:48:57","date_gmt":"2016-01-17T09:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/?p=1190"},"modified":"2021-03-30T11:09:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T10:09:08","slug":"droighnean-donn-an-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/droighnean-donn-an-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Droighne\u00e1n Donn, An (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"t:seinnteoirin1\">Play recording: Droighne\u00e1n Donn, An (1)<\/h2>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1190-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/droighnean-donn-an-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><source type=\"audio\/ogg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/droighnean-donn-an-1.ogg?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/droighnean-donn-an-1.mp3\">https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/droighnean-donn-an-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<div class=\"dmeite\">\n<p><span id=\"neasc-nocht-ceilth\" class=\"nmeite\">view \/ hide recording details [+\/-]<\/span><\/p>\n<ul id=\"clarMeiteashonrai\" class=\"meiteashonrai\">\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Teideal <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Title)<\/span>:<\/span> Droighne\u00e1n Donn, An (1).<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Chatal\u00f3ige Ollscoil Washington <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(University of Washington Catalogue Number)<\/span>:<\/span> 840113.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Chnuasach Bh\u00e9aloideas \u00c9ireann <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(National Folklore of Ireland Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Roud <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Roud Number)<\/span>:<\/span> 34586.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Laws <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Laws Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Child <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Child Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Cnuasach <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Collection)<\/span>:<\/span> Joe Heaney Collection, University of Washington, Seattle.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Teanga na Cro\u00edmh\u00edre <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Core-Item Language)<\/span>:<\/span> Irish and English.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Catag\u00f3ir <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Category)<\/span>:<\/span> song.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Ainm an t\u00e9 a thug <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Name of Informant)<\/span>:<\/span> Joe Heaney.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Ainm an t\u00e9 a th\u00f3g <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Name of Collector)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">D\u00e1ta an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Date)<\/span>:<\/span> 22\/11\/1983.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Su\u00edomh an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Location)<\/span>:<\/span> University of Washington, United States of America.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Oc\u00e1id an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Occasion)<\/span>:<\/span> evening class.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Daoine eile a bh\u00ed i l\u00e1thair <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Others present)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">St\u00e1das ch\u00f3ipcheart an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording copyright status)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Background: An Droighne\u00e1n Donn in context<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s about a man who went to the fair one day, and he met this dark-haired girl at the fair. And one of them fell for the other, or whatever you call it, and they went off together and they spent all day under a brownthorn bush. And when the evening came, they were in love, as the saying goes, and he gave her a ring as a token of their friendship. And he said, &#8220;I&#8217;ll be seeing you as soon as I go home and make arrangements to bring you to my father&#8217;s house, and we&#8217;ll get more acquainted, and I&#8217;d like to marry you&#8221;. Famous last words. Anyway, when he came home, he more or less forgot about [her]. And there was a year gone; and she heard the local gossip talking about this certain man getting married to a certain woman the week after next. And this is the man that gave her the ring. So she set out, and she dressed herself as a woman of the roads. And she came to the house where the pre-wedding \u2014 as I told you before, they used to have a pre-wedding before the real wedding. And the custom was, and still is, if a woman comes to the door \u2014 a travelling woman, which she was disguised as \u2014 the intended bridegroom gives her a glass of wine. And if a man comes to the door, the intended bride gives him a glass of whiskey or maybe stronger if she has it \u2014 poit\u00edn. So she came in, and he came up to her and offered her a glass \u2014 this is what they call hospitality, you know \u2014 he gave her a glass of wine and he started talking to her. And when she had finished the wine, she put the ring he had given her into the glass, and she handed the glass back to him. And she said, &#8216;<i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">Fuair m\u00e9 f\u00e9ir\u00edn l\u00e1 aonaigh \u00f3 bhuachaill deas<\/i>&#8216;\u2026 But she finally convinced him that she was the woman; when he saw the ring, he knew then. And what he did, he broke up with the woman he was supposed to marry, and he married the woman that he spent the day under the browthorn bush with. Now did he do right or did he do wrong?<\/p>\n<p>Fuair m\u00e9 f\u00e9ir\u00edn \u00f3 l\u00e1 aonaigh \u00f3 bhuachaill deas<br \/>\nFuair me c\u00e9ad p\u00f3g ina dhiaidh sin \u00f3 phl\u00far na bhfear<br \/>\nL\u00e1 an L\u00e9an ar an t\u00e9 a d\u00e9arfadh nach th\u00fa mo ghean<br \/>\n&#8216;S an l\u00e1 ina dhiaidh sin nach deas a d&#8217;\u00e9al\u00f3inn faoi na coillte leat.<\/p>\n<p>I got a keepsake on a fair-day from a handsome young man<br \/>\nAnd a hundred sweet kisses from my own darling John<br \/>\nConsume them, confuse them who says you&#8217;re not true<br \/>\nAnd through lonesome glens and valleys I&#8217;ll wander with you.<\/p>\n<p>Is s\u00edleann c\u00e9ad bean gur leo f\u00e9in m\u00e9 nuair a \u00f3laim leann<br \/>\nT\u00e9ann dh\u00e1 dtrian s\u00edos d\u00edom nuair a smaoin\u00edm ar a gcomhr\u00e1 liom<br \/>\n[Sneachta s\u00e9ite a bheith dh\u00e1 sh\u00edor-chur ar Shliabh U\u00ed Fhloinn]<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">1<\/sup><br \/>\n&#8216;S go bhfuil mo ghr\u00e1-sa mar bhl\u00e1th na n-\u00e1irn\u00ed &#8216;gabh\u00e1il an droighne\u00e1n donn.<\/p>\n<p>I wish I had a small boat on the ocean I&#8217;d roam<br \/>\nI would follow my darling where e&#8217;er he would go<br \/>\nI would sooner have my true love to sit, sport and play<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">2<\/sup><br \/>\nThan all the gold and silver by land or by sea.<\/p>\n<p>Now, there&#8217;s a verse there that&#8217;s very important: Is fear gan ch\u00e9ill a th\u00e9anns i dr\u00e9im leis an gcla\u00ed a bheadh ard. She&#8217;s more or less saying, &#8216;It&#8217;s a terrible fool who tries to get acquainted with people higher above than theirselves&#8217;. Is an cla\u00ed beag \u00edseal lena thaobh a leagfadh s\u00e9 a l\u00e1mh. &#8216;And the little wall beside him&#8217; or his own equal, is just beside him, that he could lay a hand on if he wanted to. L\u00e1 l\u00e9an ar an t\u00e9 a d\u00e9arfadh nach t\u00fa mo ghean. &#8216;Well my curse on these who says you cannot be mine.&#8217; Tr\u00ed ghleannt\u00e1in cheo agus [unintelligible] a leanfainn leat f\u00e9in (?). &#8216;And through lonesome glens and valleys I would follow you through.&#8217; Now, the last verse is this:<\/p>\n<p>Come all \u2014<\/p>\n<p>What she&#8217;s trying to say is, don&#8217;t miss a chance. When you get the chance, do it. And don&#8217;t be sorry either. But even the flowers fall off the trees.<\/p>\n<p>Come all you pretty fair maids, get married in time<br \/>\nTo some handsome young man that will keep up your pride<br \/>\nBeware of winter&#8217;s evenings, when cold breezes come on<br \/>\nThat will shake the blossoms early on the droighne\u00e1n donn.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"t:aistriuchan\">Translation<\/h2>\n<p>Verses 1 and 3:<\/p>\n<p>I got a fairing on a fair-day from a nice young man,<br \/>\nand a hundred kisses the next day from the flower of men.<br \/>\nMay disaster strike the one who says you are not my beloved<br \/>\nand the day after than wouldn&#8217;t I happily escape with you under the greenwood.<\/p>\n<p>A hundred women think I&#8217;m theirs when I&#8217;m drinking ale.<br \/>\nBut two-thirds of it goes from me when I think about their conversation with me.<br \/>\n[Blowing snow, constantly falling on Sliabh U\u00ed Fhloinn;]<br \/>\nand my love is like the blossom of sloes on the blackthorn bush.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n\u00f3ta\u00ed-bun-leathanaigh\">\n<h2 id=\"t:notai\">Notes<\/h2>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">1. The line given here is what Joe would normally have sung. The segment on the recording is unintelligible. It is possible that he had a momentary memory-lapse and supplied nonsense syllables to fill the gap. His American audience would have been none the wiser.<\/p>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">2. This doesn&#8217;t make much sense. A version collected in Kinvara in 1938 gives this line as &#8216;I would rather have my darling to love, sport and play&#8217;; cf. \u00d3 Muirithe, An tAmhr\u00e1n Macar\u00f3nach (Dublin, 1980), 62. Joe may have been trying to avoid using the word &#8216;love&#8217; twice in one line.<\/p>\n<p>This recording is primarily valuable in giving the widely-accepted background, or <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">\u00fadar<\/i>, of the song which, as the late Tom Munnelly has pointed out, is a version of the Hind Horn legend (see also A-T 400, motif H94.). As regards the song itself, however, Joe tries to compensate for his listeners&#8217; unfamiliarity by interpolating explanations which both create the impression that the English verses are a direct translation of the Irish lines \u2014 something that is far from being the case \u2014 and disrupt his own recall of the song&#8217;s text. As an illustration, the stanza that Joe recites and translates between the third and fourth stanzas above should normally go as follows:<\/p>\n<p>Is fear gan c\u00e9ill a th\u00e9anns i dr\u00e9im leis an gcla\u00ed a bheadh ard<br \/>\nIs an cla\u00ed beag \u00edseal lena thaobh a leagfadh s\u00e9 a l\u00e1mh<br \/>\nC\u00e9 gur ard \u00e9 an crann caorthainn beidh s\u00e9 searbh as a bharr<br \/>\nIs f\u00e1sfaidh sm\u00e9ara is bl\u00e1th subh craobh ar an gcrann is \u00edsle bl\u00e1th.<\/p>\n<p><i class=\"treaslitri\u00fa\">It&#8217;s a foolish man who tries to climb a high wall<\/i><br \/>\n<i class=\"treaslitri\u00fa\"> When there&#8217;s a low wall next to him that he could lay his hand upon;<\/i><br \/>\n<i class=\"treaslitri\u00fa\"> Although the rowan tree is high, it&#8217;s bitter at the top<\/i><br \/>\n<i class=\"treaslitri\u00fa\"> And berries and sweet blossoms grow on the tree with the lowest-growing flowers.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>In reciting the stanza, however, Joe omits the last two lines as he would normally have sung them, substituting for line 3 a line that he has already used as the third line in stanza 1; and for line 4 a line that seemingly attempts a translation from the English of the fourth line in stanza 2. Such changes and transpositions are not uncommon in the tradition; even (as here) from one performance to the next by the same traditional singer. In this case, however, the phenomenon may have been compounded by the need for explanations which Joe clearly felt were warrented in this setting.<\/p>\n<p>A more spontaneous peformance of An Droighne\u00e1n Donn before, an audience of Irish-speakers, is included in these archives. Performances are also to be found on Come All You Gallant Irishmen, a studio recording that he made while living in the United States, and on the posthumously-issued double album, The Road from Conamara. Of the performance on that recording, Tom Munnelly observes, &#8220;I know of no other macaronic version of An Draighne\u00e1n Donn [sic]. The song\u2026 has long had a parallel English-language version which is sung to its own (related but distinct) tune. Here Heaney re-unites the texts in alternating verses. His choice of tune is the one usually associated with the English-language text rather than the tune found more frequently in Conamara. I would be very curious to know if Joe continued to sing An Draighne\u00e1n Donn in this manner?&#8221; The answer \u2014 as this performance illustrates \u2014 is that he certainly did. In addition, he often claimed that it would have been sung by two singers \u2014 ideally, a man and a woman \u2014 singing alternate stanzas as a dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>For additional verses and some discussion, see R\u00edonach u\u00ed \u00d3g\u00e1in (ed.), Faoi Rotha\u00ed na Gr\u00e9ine: Amhr\u00e1in as Conamara a Bhailigh M\u00e1irt\u00edn \u00d3 Cadhain (Dublin, 1999), 70-74 and 209-11; also Miche\u00e1l agus Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 M\u00e1ille, Amhr\u00e1in Chlainne Gael, ed. William Mahon (Indreabh\u00e1n 1991), 118-122.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,11,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amhrain","category-amhrain-i-mbearla","category-amhrain-i-ngaeilge","category-scealaiocht"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3604,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/3604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}