Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh - Slán le Máigh - The Highland Sessions - BBC 2005
Slán le Máigh
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(le hAindrias MacCraith)
Slán is céad ón dtaobh seo uaim
Cois Máigh na gcaor na gcraobh na gcruach,
Na stát na séad na saor na slua,
Na ndán na ndréacht na dtréan gan ghruaim.
Curfá:
Och, och, ochón, is breoite mise
Gan chuid gan chóir gan choip gan choiste
Gan sult gan seod gan spórt gan spionnadh
Ó seoladh mé chun uaignis.
Slán go héag dá saorfhir shuairc,
Dá dáimh dá cléir dá héigs' dá sua,
Do m'chairde cléibh gan chlaon gan cluain,
Gan cháim gan cháin gan chraos gan chruas.
Curfá
Is fánach faon mé, is fraochmhar fuar,
Is támhlag tréith 's is taomach trua,
I mbarr an tsléibhe gan aon, monuar,
I m' pháirt, ach fraoch is gaoth aduaidh.
Curfá
Mudcat - Note all the alliteration
Words also in Seán Óg and Manus Ó Baoill, "Ceolta Gael", Cork, Mercier Press (first editiion, 1975, has been reprinted)
More verses in "An Mangaire Súgach" (Máire Comer Bruen & Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, Baile Átha Cliath/Dublin: Coiscéim, 1996)
Other publications of this song besides Ó Baoill, "Ceolta Gael", include Donal O'Sullivan, "Songs of the Irish" , Cork: Mercier (musical notation, poetic translation by Edmund Walsh and literal trans. by O'Sullivan, background notes) and Fleur Robertson "Irish Ballads", Gill and MacMillan, 1996 (musical notation and translation and background notes by Diarmuid Breathnach). Another recording, not easy to come by, is Deirdre Ní Floinn, "Irish Traditional Songs", Folkways FW 8762.
A long farewell I send to thee,
Fair Maigue of corn and fruit and tree,
Of state and gift and gathering grand,
Of song, romance and chieftain bland!
And och, ochón! dark fortune's rigour,
Wealth, title, tribe of glorious figure,
Feast, gift—all gone, and gone my vigour
Since thus I wander lonely!
Farewell to her to whom 'tis due,
The fair-skinned, gentle, mild-lipped, true,
For whom exiled o'er the hills I go,
My heart's dear love, whate'er my woe!
Cold, homeless, worn, forsaken, lone,
Sick, languid, faint, all comfort flown,
On the wild hill's height I'm hopeless cast,
To wail to the heath and the northern blast!
Forced by the priest my love to flee,
Fair Maigue through life I ne'er shall see,
And must my beauteous bird forgo,
And all the sex that wrought me woe!
And och, ochón! my grief, my ruin!
'Twas drinking deep and beauty wooing
That caused through life my whole undoing
And left me wandering lonely!
EDWARD WALSH
I. I send farewell and a hundred from this place
To the Maigue of the berries, the branches, the corn-stacks,
Of the stately women, the jewels, the freemen, the hosts,
Of the poems, the songs, the joyous heroes.
CHORUS. Alas, alas! 'tis sickly I am,
Without possessions or rights, without company or treasure,
Without pleasure or property, without sport or vigour,
Since I was driven to solitude.
2. Farewell above all to her to whom 'tis due,
The mannerly, white-skinned girl, soft-lipped and gifted,
Who has caused my exile for a space to the far hills,
She is the love of my breast, whoe'er the maid be!
3. Wandering and weak am I, frantic and cold,
Fainting and lonely, moody and sad,
On the mountain-top with no one, alas!
To share my solitude except heather and the north wind.
4. Since the clergy have decreed for me a new spouse,
I shall never again visit Maigue-side till death,
For the rest of my days I have bidden goodbye to my sweetheart,
And to the women of the world who brought me to sorrow.
LAST CHORUS. Alas, alas! my grief and my ruin!
Immoderate drinking and kissing girls
Have left me for ever without hearth or home,
And even with very little energy.
DONAL O'SULLIVAN
ABC format:
X:1
T:Sla/n le Ma/igh
M:4/4
Q:1/4=89
K:Ab
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G2F2E2EF|G2FEE2EF|G2dcB2AG|A2Bcd2BA|G2F2 E2EF|
G2Bc/2=d/2e2B3/2A/2|G3EF3E|E4E4||
Muireann, my condolences on your recent loss.
basically.
a census report from that year puts him and his young family in Philly PA.