06 Milis an Teanga - the poem

06 Milis an Teanga

Here is a translation of that wonderful poem of Keating's.

The words are very expressive, so I append an expanded paraphrase.

The metre is traditional and very ancient: “An Ranníocht Bheag” – with 8 syllables per line & an involved system of internal vowel-rhymes and half-rhymes at end of lines — the Gaelic poets disliked 'perfect' rhymes, thinking it too crude.

Here is my translation, with some of the Middle Irish words “updated’, just as we do with Shakespeare:–

Milis an teanga an Ghaeilge,

Sweet in the mouth is the Irish tongue,

Guth gan chabhair coigríche,

A voice in itself sufficient,

Glór géar-chaoin, glé, glinn, gasta,

A speech witty, clear, keen, and neat,

Suairc, séimhidhe, sult-bhlasta.

Agreeable, gracefully refined, a pleasure to hear.

Cé Éabhra teanga is seanda,

And although Hebrew is the most ancient,

Cé Laidin is léannta,

And Latin the most book-learned,

Uathu uirthi níor frith linn

From them we never have been found to borrow

Fuaim nó focal de chomaoin.

Sound or word for enhancement.

Seathrún Céitinn Geoffrey Keating 17th Century

[2] Another translation

This is a version commonly seen in books, with the original Middle Irish text

Milis an teanga an Ghaedhlig,

Sweet is the Irish tongue,

Guth gan chabhair coigríche,

A speech sufficient unto itself

Glór géar-chaoin, glé, glinn, gasta,

A speech witty, refined, vivid and clear,

Suairc, séimhidhe, sult-bhlasta.

Cheering, gentle, pleasing.

Gidh Éabhra teanga is seanda,

Although Hebrew is the most ancient,

Gidh Laidin is léannta,

Although Latin is the most learned,

Uathu uirthi níor frith linn

from them we did not borrow

Fuaim nó focal de chomaoin.

Sound or word as enhancement.

[3] expanded translation

Milis an teanga an Ghaeilge,

Sweet in the mouth is the Irish tongue,

as opposed to binn = sweet-sounding to the ear

Guth = voice gan chabhair coigríche,

A voice without foreign aid,

Glór = sound, noise, voice, speech géar-chaoin, glé, glinn, gasta,

A speech witty, refined, vivid and clear,

witty, clear, keen, and neat,

glé= clear, bright, pure, perfect; open, plain, manifest.

glinn= pure, clear, sharp, keen shrewd, clear-sighted

gasta= wise, ingenious, clever, brave; neat, spruce, brisk

Suairc, , Cheering, gentle, of pleasing accents .

séimhidhe, Agreeable, refined, its elegance giving pleasure.

sult-bhlasta. Agreeable, refined, pleasurably elegant. mellifluous. gracefully refined,

Suairc= civil, agreeable, affable,contented, joyous, gay

séimhidhe, [= séimh]

fine, mild, tender, placid,pleasing, slender, graceful (as a form), refined, mellow

sult-bhlasta. of sensuous elegant pleasure in the accents.

sult- = giving sensuous pleasure

blasta= elegant. Can describe the attractive 'figure' of a lady

The first of this series of alliterating words describes the intellectual pleasure in the conciseness, the absence of need for cumbersome turns of phrase; the second series describes the sensuous pleasure of the forms of the language. It is both sharp and sweet.

Gidh Éabhra teanga is seanda,

(And) although Hebrew is the most ancient,

Gidh Laidin is léannta,

And Latin the most book-learned,

Uathu uirthi níor frith linn

From them we never did borrow

frith= an archaic past passive of 'fuair'=got or found.=> 'we were never found to have';

' it has never been seen that.'...

Fuaim nó focal de chomaoin.

Sound or word for enhancement (or ‘of necessity”).

MT 06 Milis an Teanga an Ghaeilge