Brian Ó Ruairc mo rogha leannán

[1]

Brian Ó Ruairc mo rogha leannán
lór a bhuga ag bronnadh séad;
‘s is lór a chruas i gcrú chaoilshleagh,
an cnú do chnuas Ghaoidheal nGréag.

[2]

Murchadh mhac Briain, bradán Sionna,
samhail Í Ruairc ó Raith Té;
nó Niall Caille nár éar aoinfhear,
déar aille na n-aoigheadh é.

[3]

Rí Calraighe na gcreach líonmhar
budh leis Teamhair, treabh na Niall;
béal Bearchán do bhí dhá labhra
budh rí ar seanchlár Banbha Brian.

Narrative

One of the nice things about this poem is that it can be read in a linear fashion, i.e. one reads the lines of the quatrains in order: ABCD. This is not always the case with bardic poetry (see other examples on this site), a fact that makes this poem more accessible than some others.

One of the difficulties in reading this poem is that it uses copula constructions where the copula itself is implied, but not written. A related difficulty comes from the poem’s use of appositive noun phrases. [An appositive is a noun or phrase that describes the subject of the sentence, but is not itself the subject of the verb. For example, in the sentence “John, the math teacher, wrote on the blackboard,” the phrase “the math teacher” is an appositive that describes, or gives more information about, “John,” the subject of the sentence.] In the poem, when appositive noun phrases are used within the implied copula constructions, the syntax is not always obvious and readers unfamiliar with bardic poetry are confronted with what appears to be a series of loosely connected nouns or noun phrases. This is a very common feature of bardic poetry (and of other forms of poetry too, of course) and must be grasped by one wishing to translate it.

Another difficulty is the general lack of punctuation in bardic verse. The learner is rarely going to get help from marks of punctuation in making sense of how the poem’s semantic units relate to one another. Therefore, one must be attentive to certain grammatical features such as initial mutations and the use of particular noun forms (genitive, dative, accusative). These grammatical features, rather than punctuation, will guide the learner in understanding the underlying syntax of each quatrain. (NB. The punctuation marks in the transcription provided by Eleanor Knott, and reproduced here, are Knott’s doing and do not appear in the manuscript. Click on the “manuscript” link here to compare.)

[1]

Brian Ó Ruairc mo rogha leannán
lór a bhuga ag bronnadh séad;
‘s is lór a chruas i gcrú chaoilshleagh,
an cnú do chnuas Ghaoidheal nGréag.

[2]

Murchadh mhac Briain, bradán Sionna,
samhail Í Ruairc ó Raith Té;
nó Niall Caille nár éar aoinfhear,
déar aille na n-aoigheadh é.

[3]

Rí Calraighe na gcreach líonmhar
budh leis Teamhair, treabh na Niall;
béal Bearchán do bhí dhá labhra
budh rí ar seanchlár Banbha Brian.

[1]

Brian Ó Ruairc mo rogha leannán
lór a bhuga ag bronnadh séad;
‘s is lór a chruas i gcrú chaoilshleagh,
an cnú do chnuas Ghaoidheal nGréag.

[2]

Murchadh mhac Briain, bradán Sionna,
samhail Í Ruairc ó Raith Té;
nó Niall Caille nár éar aoinfhear,
déar aille na n-aoigheadh é.

[3]

Rí Calraighe na gcreach líonmhar
budh leis Teamhair, treabh na Niall;
béal Bearchán do bhí dhá labhra
budh rí ar seanchlár Banbha Brian.

Translation

[1]

Line 1 of the first quatrain is an implied copula construction; what looks to be simply two noun phrases is in fact the construction [Is é] Brian Ó Ruairc mo rogha leannán = “Brian Ó Ruairc is my choice of lovers.” Line 2 is also an implied copula construction: [Is] lór a bhuga ag bronnadh séad = “great is his gentleness when bestowing valuables.” In Line 3, by contrast, the copula is written, not simply implied: ‘s is lór a chruas i grú chaoilshleagh = “great is his hardness in an enclosure of slim spears (i.e., in battle).” Although it is not obvious, Line 4 is in fact an appositive phrase that goes with the copula construction of the first line: [Is é] Brian Ó Ruairc mo rogha leannán…an cnú do chnuas Ghaoidheal nGréag = “Brian Ó Ruairc is my choice of lovers, the nut of the cluster of the Grecian Gaels.” In thinking of the mutations in this line, remember that mutation is determined by the preceding word: chnuas is lenited as it follows the preposition do; Ghaoidheal is lenited as it follows a dative singular noun (chnuas); nGréag is eclipsed as it follows a genitive plural noun (Ghaoidheal).

[2]

Lines 5-7 also constitute an implied copula construction: [Is é] Murchadh mhac Briain, bradán Sionna, / samhail Í Ruairc ó Raith Té; / nó Niall Caille nár éar aoinfhear = “Murchadh mhac Briain, salmon of the Shannon, is the image of Ó Ruairc from Rath Té, or Niall Caille who did not refuse any man.” In this construction bradán Sionna is an appositive phrase describing Murchadh mhac Briain. Ó Ruairc from Raith Té (i.e., Brian Ó Ruairc) is described here as the “image” or “likeness” of either Murchadh mhac Briain (son of Brian Bóroimhe) or Niall Caille (9th-century High King of Ireland). Line 8, the final line of the quatrain, is yet another implied copula construction: [Is é] déar aille na-naoigheadh é = “he [Brian Ó Ruairc] is the drop of a cliff (i.e., the darling) of the guests/strangers.”

[3]

The first line of the final quatrain, Rí Calraighe na greach líonmhar, is another apositive phrase describing Brian Ó Ruairc. The second line, which uses the future tense of the copula (budh) tells us that Teamhair = “Tara” will be his. Teamhair is described as treabh na Niall = “abode of the Nialls” because several O’Neills had been crowned High King of Ireland there. The third line of the quatrain is an implied copula construction: [Is é] béal Bearchán do bhí dhá labhra = “[it is] the mouth of Bearchán that was saying it.” The fourth and final line of the quatrain tells us what Bearchán was saying, i.e., that “Briain [Ó Ruairc] will be king of the ancient plain of Banbha” (budh rí ar seanchlár Banbha Brian).

Chunk Title Goes Here, the Original Text

Definition

Form

Function