An Síogaí Rómhánach

Innisim fís is ní fís bhréige í.

Le ar súile dúinn ba léir í,

le mo chluasa do-chualas féin í,

í ní cheilim, deirim, déarad.

Lá dá rabhas ar maidin am aonar

annsa Róimh ar órchnoc Céphas,

lán do ghruaim ar uaigh na nGaol san,

sínte ar lic ag sileadh déara,

fá bhfuil dias dob’ fhial fá shéadaibh,

le n-ar ghrámhar ábhar m’éagnaigh,

Iarla mór Thíre Eoghain Néill mhir

is Ó Domhnaill na n-órlann bhfaobhrach,

an tráth do shíleas sgíth do dhéanamh,

cé do chífinn ar mhaoilinn an tsléibhe

acht fíormhaighdean bhraighidgheal bhéasach

do bhain an bárr go bráth do Vénus

is do Mhinerva i ndeilbh ‘s i ndéanamh.

Is maith do figheadh a braoithe caola,

do bhí an t-ór i meón a céibhe,

do bhí an sneachta ‘s a’ lasair ‘na héadan.

Adubhairt liomsa san mball chéadna

do ghlór mhilis ba bhinne ná téada

druidim suas ó uaigh na dtréinfhear.

Ba fada a caoi ‘s a croidhe dá réabadh.

Narrative

The text given here consists of the first 24 lines of the complete poem, which extends to over 300 lines. Based on internal evidence, the poem is thought to have been written in the years 1650-53. The author of the poem is unknown. The title An Síogaí Rómhánach (The Roman Fairy) is usually taken to refer to the female persona depicted in the poem itself, but at least two manuscript copies of the poem suggest that the title is in fact a pseudonym of the poet (the eighteenth-century poet and scribe, Aodh Buí Mac Cruitín, for instance, writes that An Síogaí Rómhánach is the pseudonym of “Cathaoir Buídhe Ó Maolmhuaidh”). The poem is one of the texts included in Cecile O’Rahilly’s Five Seventeenth-Century Political Poems , from which this excerpt is drawn.

The poem is set at the tombs of the Ulster lords Aodh Ó Néill and Rudhraighe Ó Domhnaill, both of which are located in the nave floor of San Pietro Montorio (Rome). There, the poem’s speaker recounts his vision of a beautiful woman who cries out to heaven and then enumerates the many wrongs perpetrated on Ireland since the time of the Reformation. Much of the poem focuses on Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill and the events of the 1640s. The poem ends with the female persona prophesying an Irish victory over the English before disappearing and leaving the poem’s speaker alone at the tombs of Ó Néill and Ó Domhnaill.

An Síogaí Rómhánach is regarded as one of the earliest examples of the political aisling, a genre in which a vision or dream of a female persona allows the poet to give political commentary. In later aislingí the female persona is more clearly meant to be understood as the female personification of Ireland.

Like other seventeenth-century political poems, such as Tuireamh na hÉireann, which also appears in Ó Rahilly’s collection, An Síogaí Rómhánach identifies Irish national identity with Catholicism. Luther and Calvin, for instance, are derided in the poem as heretics, as are Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Moreover, these seventeenth-century political poems are written in accentual caoineadh meter, rather than in one of the more strict syllabic meters of classical poetry. This metrical freedom allows poems of this type to give more detailed, direct political commentary than is typically found in classical poetry. Also notable in this regard is the use of English loan-words such as transplantation and Parliamentarians. For these reasons, political poems of this type are particularly important as historical sources.

The language and grammar of the poem also differs somewhat from the strict rules of Classical Irish used in bardic poetry. While An Síogaí Rómhánach maintains some features of Classical Irish, readers more accustomed to reading Modern Irish texts will likely be able to read the poem more readily than strict dán díreach. An edition of the poem, with translation, is forthcoming from Michelle O Riordan to be published by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies School of Celtic Studies.

Innisim fís is ní fís bhréige í.

Le ar súile dúinn ba léir í,

le mo chluasa do-chualas féin í,

í ní cheilim, deirim, déarad.

Lá dá rabhas ar maidin am aonar

annsa Róimh ar órchnoc Céphas,

lán do ghruaim ar uaigh na nGaol san,

sínte ar lic ag sileadh déara,

fá bhfuil dias dob’ fhial fá shéadaibh,

le n-ar ghrámhar ábhar m’éagnaigh,

Iarla mór Thíre Eoghain Néill mhir

is Ó Domhnaill na n-órlann bhfaobhrach,

an tráth do shíleas sgíth do dhéanamh,

cé do chífinn ar mhaoilinn an tsléibhe

acht fíormhaighdean bhraighidgheal bhéasach

do bhain an bárr go bráth do Vénus

is do Mhinerva i ndeilbh ‘s i ndéanamh.

Is maith do figheadh a braoithe caola,

do bhí an t-ór i meón a céibhe,

do bhí an sneachta ‘s a’ lasair ‘na héadan.

Adubhairt liomsa san mball chéadna

do ghlór mhilis ba bhinne ná téada

druidim suas ó uaigh na dtréinfhear.

Ba fada a caoi ‘s a croidhe dá réabadh.

Translation

I tell a vision and it is not a false vision.

With our eyes to us it was clear,

With my ears I myself heard it

It I do not deny, I say, I will say.

One day when I was in the morning in my solitude

In Rome on Céphas’ golden hill,

Full of sorrow on the grave of those Gaels,

Stretched on a slab shedding tears,

Under which [slab] are two most noble [men] concerning possessions

[who were] the affectionate subject of my lamenting

The great Earl of Tyrone of the indomitable Ó Néill

And Ó Domhnaill of the keen golden blades,

The time I thought to take a rest,

Whom should I see on the crest of the mountain

But a comely bright-breasted true maiden

Who took the superiority forever from Venus

And from Minerva in stature and appearance.

Well woven were her slender eyebrows,

The gold was in midst of her hair,

The snow and flame were in her face.

She told me in the same place

In a honeyed voice sweeter than strings [of harps],

To arise from the grave of the mighty men.

Long was her lamenting and her heart being torn.

Innisim fís is ní fís bhréige í.

Le ar súile dúinn ba léir í,

le mo chluasa do-chualas féin í,

í ní cheilim, deirim, déarad.

Lá dá rabhas ar maidin am aonar

annsa Róimh ar órchnoc Céphas,

lán do ghruaim ar uaigh na nGaol san,

sínte ar lic ag sileadh déara,

fá bhfuil dias dob’ fhial fá shéadaibh,

le n-ar ghrámhar ábhar m’éagnaigh,

Iarla mór Thíre Eoghain Néill mhir

is Ó Domhnaill na n-órlann bhfaobhrach,

an tráth do shíleas sgíth do dhéanamh,

cé do chífinn ar mhaoilinn an tsléibhe

acht fíormhaighdean bhraighidgheal bhéasach

do bhain an bárr go bráth do Vénus

is do Mhinerva i ndeilbh ‘s i ndéanamh.

Is maith do figheadh a braoithe caola,

do bhí an t-ór i meón a céibhe,

do bhí an sneachta ‘s a’ lasair ‘na héadan.

Adubhairt liomsa san mball chéadna

do ghlór mhilis ba bhinne ná téada

druidim suas ó uaigh na dtréinfhear.

Ba fada a caoi ‘s a croidhe dá réabadh.

Translation

As noted in the General Guide, An Síogaí Rómhánach is an accentual metre poem in the caoine (Early Modern caoineadh) metre. Each line ends with the rhyme é — and has internal assonance, though the metre is not wholly consistent. The text is fairly straightforward and can be read in a linear fashion, unlike much of the bardic poetry. It is also cast in a more modern style and does not always comply with the rules of Classical Irish.

Below are some tips to navigating some of the more challenging sections of the poem.

Le ar at the beginning of line 2 is the equivalent to Modern Irish lenár ‘with our’. Both this form and the combined form ler are found in Classical Irish. The 1st person plural possessive pronoun ar has a short vowel in Classical Irish but is often lengthened in manuscripts (= Modern Irish ár).

In line 5 dá is the relative particle added to the preposition de / do (‘from which/to which’; dia in Old Irish = dá in Classical Irish, as here). The relative particle is followed by a dependent verbal form. The construction Lá dá rabhas can be translated as ‘One day when I was’, but a more literal translation would be ‘A day of those [days] that I was....’ The am here is simply Modern Irish i mo. The preposition i is frequently found as a and causes the vowel to be dropped from the possessive pronouns mo and do (i + mo > am; i + do > ad).

Line 9 is a little tricky as it is one of the only lines that cannot be understood independently. fá bhfuil (= Modern Irish faoina bhfuil; ‘under which is’) is a relative construction (preposition fa + invisible relative marker + dependant verbal form) that refers back to lic in line 8. fá shéadaibh (lit. concerning jewels) is best understood as concerning possessions and is an indication of generosity.

Line 10 is a little problematic but could also be read as who were sympathetic to the cause of my distress, with le n-ar being taken as the preposition le + copula in relative position (with whom), though we would expect ler in Classical Irish (don’t confuse this with Le ar in line 2). The preposition forms part of the idiom Is grámhar le Y X (Y loves X). ‘Sympathetic’ would be a more appropriate translation here, however: who were sympathetic to the cause of my distress.

In line 13 the verbal noun preceded by do is the equivalent of the English infinitive here: sgíth do dhéanamh ‘to take a rest’.

In line 14 do is a verbal particle and should not be confused as a relative marker. The relative marker is attached to the do- but cannot be seen (i.e. the do is not the equivalent of a in the Modern Irish formation cé a chífinn). See also line 15 where do bhain ‘who took’ cannot be formally distinguished from ‘she took’)

In line 24 dá réabadh (made up of the preposition de + 3rd person plural possessive pronoun + verbal noun) can be translated as ‘doing it’ (lit. of their doing). The dá here should not be confused with the relative dá in line 15.

Chunk Title Goes Here, the Original Text

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