I translate here from Dha Cead de Cheoltaibh Ulaidh, ("200 Ulster Songs") a 1934 collection edited by E. O Muirgheasa and published by An Oifig Dhiolta Foilseachain Rialtais (Government Publications Office). O Muirgheasa says that he got versions in Crossmaglen, south Armagh county, and in 'Donegal', but did not specify where in the large county of Donegal. The song doesn't show up in any other early collections, Ulster or otherwise.
It is in Ceolta Theilinn, a collection by Padraig Mac Seain published by the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's University, Belfast in 1972. He mentions that he recorded the song in Rann na Feirste in the north of Donegal, but that the version from Teelin, his native place, is better. I'm taking the Irish words from his book, in tribute to the Teelin that was, a treasure house of song and story and music and humanity.
O Muirgheasa points out that the first verse is the same as the first verse of Mala an tSleibhe Ruaidh (The Brow of the Red Mountain) in Abhrain Gradh Cuige Chonnacht/Love Songs of Connacht. It's the sixth song in that collection, and Douglas Hyde obtained the relevant verse from an old woman in county Sligo.
(O Muirgheasa, of course, did not actually say from 'Donegal,' at all, but from 'Tir Chonaill,' (The Country of Conal), which is the usual Irish name of county Donegal. 'Donegal' is only a town in the far south of the county, but when the English government instituted counties, they usually named them after a principal town, or even after a totally non-principal one like Maigh Eo in the far south of county Mayo.
The only exceptions I can think of are Ciarrai (Kerry), an ancient people; Fer Manach (Fermanagh ), a people; Tir Eoin (Tyrone), Country of Eoin; and Mi (Meath) and Westmeath, which was actually an ancient province ('Middle'), though county Mi (Meath) was mostly not a part of that province.
(Laois) Leix and Ui bhFailghe (Offaly) are what the first Irish independent government in the 1920s substituted for 'Queen's and King's Counties. They actually each include a lot more than the ancient kingdoms of Laois and Ui bhFailghe did, but that's that.
Beneath is a recording of the song by the great Cor Taobh an Leithid, a choir from Gweedore.
I am awake since the moon rose last night,
I’m here, kindling the fire restlessly and feeding it desperately.
The folk of the house are all stretched out and I’m here alone;
the cocks are crowing and all the world’s asleep, but for me.
Ta me imo shuidhe o d'éirigh an ghealach areir,
ag cur teineadh sios, faraor, a's ag fadadh go gear.
Ta bunadh an toighe ina lighe, a's ta mise liom fhein,
ta na coiligh ag glaoch a's ta an tir ina gcodladh, ach me.
Your mouth, your face, are my soul’s desire,
your shining blue eyes for which I’ve abandoned pleasure and rest.
In sorrow after you, I can’t see to walk the road,
and, oh, friend of my heart, the mountains stand between you and I.
Mo sheacht n-anam deag do bheal, do mhalaidh a's do ghruaid,
do shuil ghorm ghle fa's threig mise ateas a's suairc;
le cumhaidh mhor i do dheidh, ni leir dhom an bealach a shiul,
's a charaid mo chleibh, ta na sleibhte idir me a's tu.
Learned folk say that love is a mortal sickness:
I didn’t believe them, until it tore my own heart inside.
A desperate disease, it's my sorrow that I didn’t escape it:
it sends a sharp arrow, a hundred arrows through the center of my heart.
Deir lucht an leinn gur claoite an galar an grash'
nior adhmhaigh me e, go raibh se i ndeidh mo chroidhe a chra,
Aicic ro-ghear, faraor, nar sheachnaigh me i;
cuireann se arraing a's cead, mo leir, frid ceart-lar mo chroidhe.
I met an elvish woman down at the hollow by the ford:
I asked her was there anything that would loose the fetters of love.
She said quietly, in a gentle fair voice,
“When once it goes into the heart, never, never will it loose its grasp.”
Casadh bean sidhe dom thios ag Lios Bheal an Atha'
d'fhiafraigh me di, an scaipfeadh glais ar bith gradh;
Duirt si go os-iseal i mbriathairibh soineannta samh;
"Nuair a theid se fa an chroidhe, ni scaoilfear as e go brach."
Note that some words must be written in the 'old' spelling to reflect actual Donegal pronunciation:
suidhe/sui, fadadh/fadu, croidhe/croi, luighe/lui, cumhaidh/cumha, etc,
There are thousands of great lyrical Irish and Scottish Gaelic folk songs of love. There are maybe one or two, if that, made in English in Ireland.
That's because language shift doesn't happen on a whim. Irish (and Scottish Highland) individuals and communities shifted from Irish to English because they were caught up in An Droch-Shaol--The Hard Times, or literally, The Evil World--the meat grinder of agricultural intensification and commodification of the 19th century when hundreds of thousands lost their farms and had to compete for laboring jobs on the remaining big farms.
Mostly, they starved instead. After the Famine, in particular, and then the 1880s, parents stopped speaking Irish to their children because they knew that the children needed every advantage they could get, to compete in the new English-speaking economy. A lot of other things were tossed overboard in the rush to the lifeboats, including a lot of what makes life meaningful.
So here we are with some stuff from the most remote communities in the West, the ones that were so poor that English was no advantage--and beside, who was going to teach it to them?
And for a taste of beautiful Donegal Irish, here's a link to a Radio na Gaeltachta interview of five-year old Huidi Mac Garbheith. He starts by giving his ancestors for 9 generations (on his father's side), talking about his family (his mother is from west Montana), his pets (cats and goats), his first memories etc. Later on, he tells a ladder story and sings Oro 'Se do Bheatha Abhaile. At 8 minutes, he discusses the Titanic.
It's great!
http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=b17%5F20648016%5F1748%5F12%2D09%2D2014%5F
And here is a woman from South Uist (Scottish Gaelic).
Ceolas is a summer music and dance program in South Uist with a Gaelic focus.
Scottish Gaelic is easy! for Irish speakers, once you know some prominent words that differ. South Uist Gaelic is very clear, I think, and doesn't have the weird (to an Irish-speaker) phonology that some other Scottish dialects have.
Words to look out for:
Tha mi - Ta Me
Trang - Gnothach, Curamach, Broidiul, etc....(Busy)
Deiseal - Ready
Luchd teagaisg - Teachers
Tighinn - Teacht
Cuideachd - Freisin, Leis, Fosta
Fiosrachadh - Eolas
Sia Miosan - Six Months
As Abhaist - Ordinarily
Na h-Oileanaich - the Students
Bidh - Bionn, Beidh
Tachairt - Happening, Occuring
Talla - Halla
Etc.
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