Pimple on the Buttocks

Agus mé anso ag déanamh mo mhachnamh ar chúrsaí an cleasaí claon cam-nósach lúbarnach de shaol atá againn, snámh roinnt focal suas chugham…

   

(Sitting here on a too warm evening, trying not to worry about things that certainly would require serious worry., some stray quatrains and proverbs that float into memory, Irish and Scottish Gaelic:)

Molann an saol an té a bhíonn grámhar cóir,

A’s molann an chléir an té a bhíonn páirteach leo:

Dar solas na gréine! Isé mo rá go deó,

Go molfad-sa féin gan bhréag an t-áth mar gheod.

(People will praise a man who is gracious and kind;

Priests will praise whoever takes their part.

By the light of the sun, and no lie in it at all,

I for my part will praise each thing as it deserves.

(Literally, "the ford as I find it.")

Is trua don duine ná tuigeann a chúrsa féin:

A’s fuaire an ionad a gcuirfear fé chudach é;

I n-uaimh chaoil chumhaing, gan chumas do á unfairt féin,

A’s a chuallacht uile, tráth a chuirfid, go bhfúidis é.

(Alas for he who does not see how things stand:

It is a cold place into which he'll be closed:

in a narrow straight grave with no room to stretch,

and all his people will leave him and walk away.)

Tá fuascailt gach cheiste innti féin

(The answer to a question lies in the question itself)

Gheibh bó bleoghainn: gheibh domhain daoine. (A cow will find someone to milk it; a world will have people) (ie of uncertain quality)

S'é barrachd an aodaich a bháthas na longan caola. (Too much sail capsizes small vessels.)

Is minic do rith fear buile tre thuile ina lán rith:

Is minic do rug tuille fear buile le fána.

(A crazed man often is able to run through a raging flood: A raging flood often carried a crazed man away.)

Cúngrach tí; cúngrach croí:  cúngrach bidh – trí anacra móra. (Narrow house; narrow heart; narrow provisions -- three great burdens)

Is farsuinn tigh an dreathainn. (The wren's house is large.) (ie. It's the whole world: he doesn't have a nest.)

 

Chan eil deatach an tigh na h-uiseige. (There is no smoke in the lark's house.) (ie. the sky)

 Fios fithich gu róic. (A raven's invitation to a feast.) (ie. He spied it and invited himself, probably against the wishes of others present.)

As an obair do fachtar an fhoghlaim. (One learns by doing the work.)

Ard fuaim na n-uisgí éadtroma. (Shallow waters are noisy.)

Is leithide an bualtach satail ann. (Cow shit only spreads out, when you stamp on it.)

Is minic a leag cac bó fear maith. (Often cow shit felled a good strong man.) (ie. in a farmyard, for example.)

Ba chóir an dán á dhéanamh go maith ar dtúis,

Mar is mó fear millte a thiocfaidh air.

(You have to make a poem well; there will be many people to wreck it.) (ie confusions as a result of the oral tradition.)

Trí shaghas fear go dteipeann orthu bean á thuiscint: fir óga; fir aosda; fir mheán-aosta. (Three types of man who cannot understand women: young men, old men and middle-aged men.)

Níor theip an tuathal ar éinne riamh. (Stupidity never failed to come through for anyone.)

Guireann ar más. (A pimple on the buttocks.) (ie. A small thing can make one very uncomfortable, or cause big problems.)

And a riddle:

Chi mi thall air fáireagan,

O bhárr na lice ruaidhe,

Am mac a’ tighinn o mháthair,

‘s a mháthair a’ teicheadh bhuaithe.

(freagra: An oidhche agus an latha a' dealachadh (ie. scarúint lena chéile)

(I probably learned many of these from O'Rahilly's Dainfhocail, and Burdúin Bheaga (collections of quatrains taken from later bardic poetry, and eighteenth-century poetry, respectively (one of which is available on Internet Archive now); or from his edition of O Longáin’s early nineteenth-century manuscript of Cork proverbs, which I think O'Rahilly published as A Miscellany of Irish Proverbs: and from Seanfhocail Uladh; and from Alexander Nicolson's Gaelic Proverbs, originally published in 1881 (a great book.); and from Aithris is Oideas (1964), a collection of traditional Scottish Gaelic childrens' rhymes.)