THE VILLAINOUS KERRYMAN
from the Irish of Eoin Ruagh O'Suileabhain
for Seósamh Ó hEanaigh

THE GIRL
If I follow after you straight back to Carbery
I'll be losing my mind if you don't come alongwith me;
O Ro, I'll be crying down tears.

THE MAN
Without lovely money don't you travel after me
With bank notes and sovereign coins from the Englishry;
O Ro, to pay for the beer,
We'll have no blistered fists from digging in misery
Or milking the cattle that give milk so grudgingly,
Oh never, but dancing with joy and with jollity,
Throwing out silver in sheer hospitality;
O Ro, the whiskey that cheers.

THE GIRL
I'd walk over Wales and the world in your company,
Not stay here in Ireland to hear Mass in piety;
O Ro, to New England we'd steer;
But two-thirds of your . chatter is lying and flattery
And the other one-third is seduction and roguery;
O Ro, it's your wildness I fear.

THE MAN
O love of my breast you're the star of the day to me;
I cannot be lying, whatever they say of me,
I'd fear for my soul if I dlandished with falsity,
You are caught in my breast and I'll die if you banish me;
O Ro, I'll be stretched on a bier.

So I marched through the Callans and she came along with me,
Hearing my lies and the best of good poetry;
O Ro, the lying that cheers;
Till I emptied her pockets of every last moiety,
No beggarly cuteness, but true liberality;
O Ro, the journey was dear.
Then I settled my beaver and strode on most manfully,
My stick of shillelagh I carried unflaggingly,
Jumped hedges and ditches, while she ran remorselessly,
Spanked close to Kanturk with no maidenly modesty;
O Ro, she ran like a deer.

When night-time came on and there was no sign of me
The gullible creature began to search frantically;
O Ro, the sound of her tears.
She burst out lamenting and wailed of dishonesty,
Roared, `Money and heart are betrayed by some rapparee!'
O Ro, through many a year.

THE GIRL
Rise up friends and neighbours and help me search properly
In quest of this villainous rogue of a Kerryman
Through meadows and bogs to recover my property
For his blatherskite villainy left me in penury;
O Ro, my lesson was dear.

PREAB 'SAN OL
from the Irish

The many methods of making money Leave little leisure for having fun
And think how long you'll be stretched and breathless
Alone and lonely beneath a stone;
If you're a Lord or a Duke or Princeling
You'll take no gold when you go below
And therefore think that the greatest wisdom
Is making merry with Preab 'san Ol.

The Gombeenman in his greed for money
Will take ten gains for the price of one
The cheapest goods will be priced the dearest
For what costs sixpence he'll charge a crown
But as the camel can thread no needle
The Gombeenman if he'd save his soul
Must therefore think that the greatest wisdom
Is making merry with Preab 'san Ol.

The ship that sails on the pathless ocean
No chart no sextant to shoot the sun
Will yet in Spain or in Rock Gibraltar
Find friends to meet with when day is done;
The Grand Seignior in his airy palace
May see bags filling and call for more
And yet death waits so the greatest wisdom
Is making merry with Preab 'san Ol.

The lovely lily that toils nor spins not
Arrayed in beauty that's like the sun
But Solomon in his wit and wisdom
Could not stand up to comparison;
In life there's nothing but puff or bubble
An arrow loosed or another bowl
So therefore think that the greatest wisdom
Is making merry with Preab 'san Ol.


LIADAN TELLS OF HER LOVE FOR CUIRITHIR

Unpleasing
The deed I did
What I loved I killed.

Were it not
For fear of Heaven
I'd have risked the Devil.

Not small
What he desired
To avoid fire.

A trifle
Vexed him towards me
I loved him greatly.

I am Liadan
Cuirithir I loved
Easily proved.

A little while
I was in his company
And it was sweet to me.

Forest music
Used to sing to me
And the fierce sea.

I had thought
Nothing I could do
Would change his view.

Conceal it not
He had my heart
Others my art.

A roar of fire
Has split this heart of mine
Without him I pine.

Now the way she vexed him was her haste in taking the veil.

GRAINNE'S SLEEP-SONG FOR DIARMAIT

Sleep a little, just a little
There's nothing to fear
O lad to whom I've given love
Sleep Diarmait my dear.

Sleep soundly, oh so soundly
Diarmait my love
I shall watch over you
Hovering above.

Sleep a little and bless you
Above the water's edge
Above the lake-top foam
Close to the sedge.

May your sleep be like that
Of every true lover
Who carried off his love
All Ireland over.

I shall watch over you
O my Grecian battle-fence
My heart would almost break
Without your presence.

To part us one from the other
Is to break a family
Taking children from parents
Or soul from the body.

Sleep a little, just a little
There's nothing to fear
O lad to whom I've given love
Sleep Diarmait my dear.