Mo bhrón ar an bhfarraige Is é tá mór, Is é gabháil idir mé 'S mo mhíle stór. Fagadh san mbaile mé Déanamh bróin, Gan aon tsúil tar sáile liom Choíche ná go deo. Mo léan nach bhfuil mise 'Gus mo mhúirnín bán I gCúige Laighean Ná i gContae an Chláir. Mo bhrón nach bhfuil mise 'Gus mo mhíle grá Ar bord loinge Triall go Meiriceá. Leaba luachra Bhí fúm aréir, Agus chaith mé amach é Le teas an lae. Tháinig mo ghrá-sa Le mo thaobh Gualainn ar ghualainn Agus béal ar bhéal.

My grief is of the sea What a gulf it is which separates my love, my world and his. I was left at home Where I sat grieving Forever without any hope of leaving I sorely regret that we're not there in Leinster province nor County Clare. My sorrow is that my love and I were not on that ship to America. I slept in a bed that was hard last night and I threw it out when it grew light. My love came to me and lay at my side shoulder to shoulder for awhile to abide.

This is a song from Douglas Hyde's book "Love-Songs of Connacht" published in 1893. Hyde, born in 1860 in Roscommon, was a Protestant who became the first president of Ireland. He died in 1949.

Hyde heard the song "My Grief on the Sea", from a woman named Brighid ni Chorsuaidh who was almost a hundred years old and living in a hut in the middle of a bog in Co. Roscommon. A footnote says: "Tá sí marbh anois agus a cuid amhrán léi" -- "she is dead now and her share of songs with her".

I am not a poet but I wrote what could be called a loose translation in rhyme into the English. I invite anyone who would like to improve on it to email me at: cyberspoke@aol.com

Courtesy of IrishPage.com
Manahawkin, Ocean County, NJ USA
[ Background Music: Rose of Tralee ]