Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais Cuirt an Mheán Oíche—The Midnight Court le/by Brian Merriman The Life of Brian We do not know very much about the life of Brian Merriman (or Bryan Merryman, as he is commonly referred to in earlier sources—seemingly, the current spelling became commonplace because of the lack of a native “y” in Irish). It is thought that he was born around 1747 in eastern Co. Clare. There is speculation that he was born on the wrong side of the blanket, the illegitimate son of a local squire. Some see in the paean to bastardry that make’s up a considerable part of the old man’s speech in the poem evidence of Brian’s feelings about his own origins. It is also suggested that this is where his anglicized name comes from. Although in some later publications, his name is gaelicized to Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre, there is no evidence that he went by anything other than Merriman in his own lifetime. By 1770, he was in the poverty-stricken and, at the time, backward east-county village of Feakle where he served as a schoolteacher. He was also a small farmer with a holding of twenty acres. Seemingly, he was at least an adequate farmer since there is a record of his having won two prizes from the Royal Dublin Society for his flax crop. There was no regular schoolhouse in Feakle until 1837 and the arrangements prior to that were pretty ad hoc. In 1825, for instance, there were thirteen “schools” in the parish but a description of the arrangements from a report that year of the Commissioners on Education in Ireland shows the parlousness of the system, if such it can be called. Four of the so-called schools met in chapels and two in the kitchen of the teacher’s dwelling. Even though the latter were probably nothing to write home about, they were hopefully better than the pitiful setup for the remaining seven, which were said to meet in: ● the mistress’s dwelling—an excavation in a broad bank of earth; ● a barn—a wretched hovel; ● a wretched cabin or cattle shed; ● a temporary cabin; http://www.showhouse.com/merriman.html (1 of 5)19/06/2011 00:36
138
Embed
Cuirt an Mhean Oiche - by Brian Merriman (1780): A Translation by Noel Fahy 1998
This translation of the famous Irish bawdy ballad - Cuirt an Mhean Oiche - is by Noel Fahy, a Boston Irish Gaelgoir . I've just mailed him to ask permission to SCRIBD the entire contents of the work which is also available at www.showhouse.com A friend called round asking me to source a copy so I went onto the web and put the site into this pdf booklet. Something of a Merriman scholastic type himself he left soon after to pour over it. The large print was a great help as far as his failing eye-sight was concerned and the same goes for more of us. There's little point me coming on the scholar after Mr. Fahy's grand achievement except to say context is everything and that a merry Irish man who upon falling into a day-dream only to be chastened by a Fairy Queen 'querying', his disinterest in courting would certainly not go unsrcutinised in our own gay times. Ah sure there's many a reason for that disinclination bar the one the likes of David Norris and Peter Thatchel might conspire. Nonetheless I dare say the Irish have been a priest ridden nation for more years than they might care to remember, matriarchal ambition and 'Hell hath no fury', apart. All that aside the opening description of the lake scene is so fine I for one can entirely identify with the young Merriman's disinterest in the affairs of the world and it brings to my mind the defence of our lakes and waterbodies this time from the effects of the equally dubious pursuit of 'Fracking'. How time never changes but then why ought it sure isn't it the same wee carrot distracting the donkey all along. But just by way of getting it straight 'Fracking' is short for Hydraulic Fracturing which is the new drilling technique for accessing gasses from deep shales; and in Ireland's case two licenses have been granted to explore the Lough Allen Basin. Now that's the opposite end of the Shannon to the beautiful Lough Graney in Clare where the bold Brian Merriman dozed off of a fine summers day in 1780. 'The Life of Brian', is no worse than 'The Life of Reilly', I suppose but are they related? I'll leave it to Peter Thacthell to prove the connection. Nonetheless here we are faced with all sorts of modern predicaments and what to do but to rise to them for if not it will simply fall on someone else to do so. Which is all by way of saying it's great to have the opportunity to join up some very distant and unrelated dots in this very merry and haphazard way binding the noble Merriman discourse to our concerns about Fracking as expressed on my aptly titled 'No Fracking Ireland', page. 'No fracking way', you say but check the Facebook link at the bottom of this text anyway. Well that's it what can I say except enjoy reading this Irish literary time piece and the wonderful commentary and glossary. Also visit the site www.showhouse.com which has a few more links than I've included here. I've blocked people from downloading this document pending permission from the author so for now it's read and print only which is no more nor less than you can do on the showhouse site. A woman, as Merriman ponders is two things at once, both a queen and a crone, as indeed is every aspect of life. I guess it's a ying-yang thing or a depending on which side of the bed you might have fallen out of thang. Nonetheless even a fools errand is an entertaining thing. I love the extraordinary in the ordinary beauty of Ireland. A friend commented recently that the Mayo flag - which is Red and Green - ought really be our national flag. And you know I agree because whenever the land wasn't feeding us it seems we were feeding it; proving there's no such thing as a free nap no mind a free lunch. And please don't forget to befriend the 'No Fracking Ireland', Facebook site or pretty soon there'll be nowhere left worth a frick: http://www.facebook.com/pages/No-Fracking-Ireland/217392378284498
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
Cuirt an Mheán Oíche—The Midnight Court le/by
Brian Merriman
The Life of Brian
We do not know very much about the life of Brian Merriman (or Bryan Merryman, as he is commonly referred to in earlier sources—seemingly, the current spelling became commonplace because of the lack of a native “y” in Irish).
It is thought that he was born around 1747 in eastern Co. Clare. There is speculation that he was born on the wrong side of the blanket, the illegitimate son of a local squire. Some see in the paean to bastardry that make’s up a considerable part of the old man’s speech in the poem evidence of Brian’s feelings about his own origins. It is also suggested that this is where his anglicized name comes from. Although in some later publications, his name is gaelicized to Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre, there is no evidence that he went by anything other than Merriman in his own lifetime.
By 1770, he was in the poverty-stricken and, at the time, backward east-county village of Feakle where he served as a schoolteacher. He was also a small farmer with a holding of twenty acres. Seemingly, he was at least an adequate farmer since there is a record of his having won two prizes from the Royal Dublin Society for his flax crop.
There was no regular schoolhouse in Feakle until 1837 and the arrangements prior to that were pretty ad hoc. In 1825, for instance, there were thirteen “schools” in the parish but a description of the arrangements from a report that year of the Commissioners on Education in Ireland shows the parlousness of the system, if such it can be called.
Four of the so-called schools met in chapels and two in the kitchen of the teacher’s dwelling. Even though the latter were probably nothing to write home about, they were hopefully better than the pitiful setup for the remaining seven, which were said to meet in:
● the mistress’s dwelling—an excavation in a broad bank of earth;
● a barn—a wretched hovel; ● a wretched cabin or cattle shed; ● a temporary cabin;
http://www.showhouse.com/merriman.html (1 of 5)19/06/2011 00:36
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
● a very wretched cabin; ● a waste barn; ● a barn.
Three schools were reported to have nineteen, twenty and twenty-nine pupils, respectively, but each of the other ten had between 51 and 128 attendees (for a total of 800), astonishing numbers given the nature of the establishments. If Merriman himself is indicative of even the most able products of such schools—and where else would he have gotten his education—we can only marvel at the ability to impart, and the desire to imbibe, knowledge in such unpromising surroundings. It is clear that, however he acquired it, Merriman had an acquaintance with contemporary English and European literature and thought.
In his description of Brian’s life as an introduction to his translation of the Cúirt, Riseárd Ó Foghlú describes the hard life of the teacher:
“Bhí an saol crua go leor ar mhúinteoirí scoile i dTuamhumhain le linn Bhriain agus tamall ina dhiaidh sin: ba chaol an tuarastal do bhí ag dul dóibh ó dhaltaí bochta na háite, i dtreo go mbíodh ar an máistir bannaí, dintiúirí, srl., do scríobh do dhaoine chun cur lena fháltas, agus is minic do b’éigin don bhfear bocht ramhan agus sluasad do tharraingt chuige chun réal do thuilleamh.” (Schoolteachers’ lives in Thomond were quite difficult in Brian’s time and for a while thereafter: they got little in remuneration from the poor children of the area and they had to supplement their income by preparing legal documents for the people, and often the poor teacher had to take shovel or spade in hand to earn the odd sixpence.)
As is made abundantly clear in the final section of Cúirt an Mheán Oíche, Merriman did not marry until later in life and certainly not until after he had authored his famous work. It is likely that he married in the early 1790s—his first child, a daughter named Caitlín (Kathleen), was born in 1795. He had one other child, another daughter, Máire (Mary). His wife, whose name was Cit (Kit), was born in 1767. She was also known as Cit an Mhaighisteara (the master’s Kit) attesting to Brian’s occupation. And she was later remembered as a fine, handsome, trim woman (bean bhreá dhathúil mhaiseach).
At some stage, Brian Merriman had moved from rural Clare to Limerick City where he continued to eke out a seemingly meager existence as a teacher. He died suddenly there on
http://www.showhouse.com/merriman.html (2 of 5)19/06/2011 00:36
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
July 27, 1805 as an entry in the “General Advertiser and Limerick Gazette” of Monday, 29th July, 1795 noted:
“Died.—On Saturday morning, in Old Clare-street, after a few hours’ illness, Mr. Bryan Merryman, teacher of Mathematics, etc.”
A few days later, on Thursday, a death notice appeared in Faulkner’s “Dublin Journal”:
“At Limerick, after a few hours illness, Mr. Bryan Merryman, teacher of mathematics.”
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche is essentially his sole work; only two other short lyrics are attributed to him. He composed it in 1780 and it is the great mystery of his life why he did not follow up on this opus in the twenty-five years of life remaining to him. We simply do not know the answer to that question. Daniel Corkery asked in “The Hidden Ireland”: “Was it the poet’s moving into Limerick City caused the havoc?”—casting an aspersion on that city three quarters of a century before Frank McCourt did it at book length.
Frank O’Connor, in the introduction to his translation of the poem, has similar views of the benighted city:
"There is no tablet in Clare Street to mark where Bryan Merryman, the author of the Midnight Court died, nor is there ever likely to be, for Limerick has a reputation for piety."
But, then, O'Connor casts a no less jaundiced eye on Clare:
"Merryman was born about the middle of the eighteenth century in a part of Ireland which then must have been as barbarous as any in Europe—it isn’t exactly what one would call civilised today."
Merriman’s poem is daring and explicit but that does not seem to have caused its author the type of grief that was visited on Irish authors in later years. In his introduction to the 1912 edition of the work, Piaras Béaslaí notes:
“The poem at once attained popularity. Its freedom from stilted
http://www.showhouse.com/merriman.html (3 of 5)19/06/2011 00:36
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
language and archaism, its welding of the spoken speech into musical lines made it appeal to the educated and illiterate alike. Many manuscript copies were made, many people memorized it.”
Mr. Béaslaí quotes a certain Dr. P. W. Joyce writing in 1879:
“Three years ago I met a man in Kilkee…who actually repeated for me, without the slightest hitch or hesitation, more than half—and if I had not stopped him, would have given me the whole of the Midnight Court.”
Mr. Béaslaí continues:
“It is a fact, however strange, that none of the daring passages in the ‘Cúirt’ drew down upon their author any general outcry or denunciation. His audacious handling of ideas most sacred to the Gael, such as the celibacy of the clergy, does not appear to have made him any enemies. Probably he was protected just as Rabelais was protected by his pose of jester. … His work was probably regarded by many as a kind of naughty joke, a piece of broad ‘risky’ farce, not to be taken seriously.”
Piaras Béaslaí may be barking up the wrong tree here by anachronistically ascribing the sensibilities of his time to an earlier, less straitlaced age. The acceptance of the poem may not have been at all strange. It is highly questionable whether ideas such as celibacy of the clergy—and prudishness about matters sexual, in general—were in any way “sacred to the Gael”.
There is a great deal of evidence that the conservatism in matters religious and sexual were products of the second half of the nineteenth century which continued long into the twentieth and were, in fact, not native nor natural to the race.
Blame, or credit, for its growth has been laid at the feet of imported French Jansenism but perhaps an even more important factor was the cataclysm of the Great Famine of the 1840s. That catastrophe produced two mutually reinforcing influences pushing the people towards such conservatism: the feeling that the indescribable horror of the famine was literally God-awful, a judgment of God on the country; and the fear of bringing large
http://www.showhouse.com/merriman.html (4 of 5)19/06/2011 00:36
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
numbers of children into a crowded, unsustaining environment, an aversion that encouraged delaying marriage until much later in life and fostered premarital celibacy during the prolonged period of batchelorhood/spinsterhood.
In any case, in Merriman’s own time, it seems that his poem was not merely tolerated by the people but heartily embraced. Backward the country may have been but one is dubious of the progress, if progress it was, of the following century and a half when we recall that, in 1945, the censors banned for a while Frank O'Connor's translation of the poem, just the sort of narrow-mindedness that Merriman had anticipatorily parodied long before and that was thereby deliciously, if presumably unwittingly, self-referential in its foolishness but was unfortunately made serious with the power of the nascent—and self-professedly Gaelic—state behind it!
After he finished Cúirt an Mheán Oíche, the poet fell silent and Bryan Merryman went on his way, merry or not as the case may have been.
Professor Seán Ó Tuama describes The Midnight Court well:
“The Midnight Court is undoubtedly one of the greatest comic works of literature, and certainly the greatest comic poem ever written in Ireland. … It is a poem of gargantuan energy, moving clearly and pulsatingly along a simple story line, with a middle, a beginning and an end. For a poem of over one thousand lines it has few longeurs. It is full of tumultuous bouts of great good humour, verbal dexterity and rabelesian ribaldry. It is a mammoth readable achievement with little need of gloss.” (Brian Merriman and His Court, Seán Ó Tuama, pg. 158)
Quite simply, as a modern-day publisher might say in promoting a new book: it’s a very good read. Formally, it consists of a Prologue, three dramatic monologues, and an Epilogue. It combines the traditional Irish aisling with the Court of Love poems of medieval Europe.
The aisling, dream or vision, poetry was either amatory or political in which a comely spéirbhean, or sky-woman, appears to the poet in a dream. For instance, in the 10-century Aisling Oneguso, the poet sees a beautiful maiden in a dream, with whom he falls in love and is eventually united.
By the 18th century, although the love-aisling was still in use, the genre was more often devoted to political deliverance where the dream-woman was Ireland personified. By this time, the form had become quite stylized in many ways:
● The poet is out for a ramble, often first thing of a bright summer’s morning; ● He lays down by a stream for a rest and falls asleep; ● A beautiful woman appears in a dream whose allure is described in lavish and
exuberant detail; ● The poet asks in wonder whether she is a Greek goddess or other fantastical figure
(usually several possibilities are listed);
http://www.showhouse.com/intro.html (1 of 9)19/06/2011 00:38
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Introduction
● She answers that she is no such creature but, instead, Ireland; and usually with a name such as Caitlín Ní hUallacháin, Síle Ní Ghadhra, Róisín Dubh—or simply Éire;
● She laments the state of the country with its leaders dead or in exile and the foreigners in possession of their ancestral land;
● She foretells (in the 18th century) the imminent return of the rightful Stuart king or that help is due to arrive shortly from over the seas from Spain, France or the Pope;
● The poet awakens, sometimes to the bitter realization that, in fact, no salvation is at hand—it was only a dream.
A short example (generally these poems are quite lengthy) is An Aisling by Aodhagán Ó Rathaille (?1670-1729) from the Sliabh Luachra district in County Kerry. Although too short to exhibit the panoply of features just outlined, the poem is interesting in the context of The Midnight Court, since the featured spéirbhean is the same Aoibhill who plays such a major role in Merriman’s work:
Maidin sul smaoin Titan a chosa do luailOne morning before Titan had brought forth first light
Ar mhullach cnoic aird aoibhinn do lódamar suas, On top of a fair hill of considerable height
Tarrastar linn scaoith bhruinnel soilbhir suairc— I met a sweet group of young girls bright
Gasra bhí i Sí Seana solasbhrú thuaidh. A troop in Sí Seana’s north fort of delight.
Fearastar scím dhraíochta nár dhorcha snua, A magic mist spread, which was not grey,
Ó Ghaillimh na líog lígheal go Corcaigh na gcuan; From the harbours of Cork to Galway bay
Barra gach crainn síorchuireas toradh agus cnuas, The clusters of fruit made every tree sway
Meas daire ar gach coill, fírmhil ar chlocha go buan.
Acorns and pure honey everywhere lay.
Lasaidsin trí coinnle go solas nach luaim They lit three candles, casting an ineffable glow
Ar mhullach Chnoic aird Fhírinne Conallach Rua; On Cnoc Firinne’s lofty summint in Conallach Roe
Leanastar linn scaoith na mban gcochall go Tuamhain,
With the group of cloaked women to Thomond I did go
Is fachtaimse dhíobh díograis a n-oifige ar cuairt.Asking about their mission, if they could let me know
D’fhreagair an bhríd Aoibhill nár dhorcha snua,Then answered lady Aoibhill whose face was not grey:
Fachain na dtrí gcoinnle do lasadh ar gach cuan They had lit the three candles above every bay
In ainm an rí dhíograis bheas againn go luath, In the name of the fond king who was on his way
http://www.showhouse.com/intro.html (2 of 9)19/06/2011 00:38
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Introduction
I gceannas na dtrí ríochta*, is dá gcosnamh go buan.
To wear the triple crown** forever and a day
As m’aisling do shlímbhíogas go hachomair suas, Suddenly from my dreamy sleep I sat bolt upright
Is do mheasas gurb fhíor d’Aoibhill gach sonas dár luaigh;
Believing that Aoibhill’s good news must be right
Is amhlaidh bhíos tímchreathach, doilbhir, duairc, But I found I was downcast and shaken with fright
Maidin sul smaoin Titan a chosa do luail.That morning before Titan had brought forth first light
* Sasana, Éire is Alba.
** Of England, Ireland and Scotland.
(Source: Text: Filíocht na nGael, Pádraig Ó Canainn do chuir in eagar, An Press Náisiúnta, Baile Átha Cliath, 1958, lch. 65; My Translation)
(The modern song in English by Tommy Makem, Four Green Fields, has some of the elements of the aisling in updated garb—a woman representing Ireland recounts how the strangers came and ravaged the country and its people, her pain over the continued loss of her lands, the six counties in this instance, but she expresses the hope of winning them back. Another song in English which even more closely resembles the love-aisling is Síle Ní Eidhir.)
As I said, all this had become rather stylized. Daniel Corkery speaks of an “inbreeding” among the poets of the bardic schools—“a disease most incident to academies.”
“That rigid turn of mind which kept their literary medium in a strait-jacket for whole centuries, afraid not so much of growth as the dangers that go with it, kept the doors of the inventive faculties severely sentried, and for the self-same reason. The movement of their minds is swift, precise, and often piercing, but one wishes for livelier contrasts, for richer colour, for readier emotions.” (The Hidden Ireland, pg. 82).
Similarly, Piaras Béaslaí writes:
"Few literatures have been less coloured by the individuality of the writers than Gaelic literature. It had been originally the product of a separate literary caste, confined to certain familes, taught in schools, shackled by conventions, by respect for tradition, by archaism." ("Merriman's Secret: An Interpretation," Piaras Béaslaí, in Cuirt an mheadhon oidhche, Riseard O Foghludha, pg. 1).
Merriman cetrainly broke the mold. Not only was did he write vigorously and expressively
http://www.showhouse.com/intro.html (3 of 9)19/06/2011 00:38
in the everyday speech of County Clare and call a spade a spade rather than an agricultural implement, he introduced a burlesque element into the aisling form itself. There is not one vision-woman but two: the radiant Aoibheal, the very soul of convention, is teamed with a grotesque doppelgänger, the bailiff-woman—at six or seven yards in height and with features to match, a parody of the beautiful spéirbhean.
In his long opus, he gives only the most cursory treatment, in a harangue in the Prologue that is largely irrelavant to the poem’s major themes, to that staple of the political aisling—the broken-down state of the country because of the disappearance of the native lords and their replacement by foreign hordes:
An uaisle b’fhearr chun fáin mar leaghadar 81 The nobles languish in a foreign land
Is uachtar láimhe ag fáslaigh shaibhre, 82 While the jumped-up rich get the upper hand,
Ag fealladh le fonn is foghail gan féachaint 83 In betrayal ardent, in plunder greedy
D’fheannadh na lobhar is an lom dá léirscrios. 84 Flaying the sick, despoiling the needy.
Is dochrach dubhach mar dhíogha gach daoirse 85 It is blackly baneful and sticks in the craw
Doilbhe dúr i ndúbhcheilt dlíthe 86 That, in darkest despair over the absence of law,
An fann gan feidhm ná faghaidh ó éinne 87 There’s nothing from no one for the purposeless weak
Ach clampar doimhin is luí chum léirscrios, 88 But a depredacious future that is hopelessly bleak,
Falsacht fear dlí is fachtnaí ardnirt, 89 The knavery of lawyers, tyranny on high
Cam is calaois faillí is fabhar, 90 Injustice, fraud and neglect apply
Scamall an dlí agus fíordhath fannchirt, 91 The law is clouded, the scales awry,
Dalladh le bríb, le fee is le falsacht. 92 With all the pull that bribes can buy.
Instead, in Seamus Heaney’s words, Merriman’s concerns are psycho-sexual rather than national-patriotic. The woes of the country are laid mostly at the feet of the young men who refuse to marry (and of the celibate clergy, a subset of the country’s recalcitrant bachelors). The lively discussion of this topic takes up the major part of the poem and is played out in a Court of Love, the work’s second major dramatic vehicle.
Seán Ó Tuama describes in great detail the European antecedants of this artifice, stretching as it does back into medieval continental times and borrowing also from post-Elizabethan sources in England.
“The Midnight Court is, in fact, a Court of Love in the typical West European
http://www.showhouse.com/intro.html (4 of 9)19/06/2011 00:38
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Introduction
mould. Literary parliaments, assemblies and courts were very much in vogue in western Europe between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. One finds courts of love in Provencal, French and Latin as early as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Later one comes on them in German, Italian and English. In English, the genre is found in abundance from the time of Chaucer right down to Elizabethan times.” (Brian Merriman and His Court, Seán Ó Tuama, pg. 150)
In the Midnight Court, in best Marcia Clark-Johnny Cochrane courtroom style, a young woman presents the case for the prosecution, the defense’s rebuttal is in the hands of an old man and the young woman is given the chance for a final re-rebuttal. Aoibheal, the president of the court, then hands down her ruling.
The invective is sharp. The young woman’s opening argument is a tirade about being sexually neglected in spite of her considerable allure. She asks why men marry hags and harridans while she and her contemporaries are left on the shelf. She details the various superstitious rites available to her to attempt to change her fortune:
Níorbh áil liom codladh go socair aon uair díobh 291 I could never sleep peacefully in my bed
Gan lán mo stoca do thorthaí faoi mo chluasa, 292 Without a sockful of fruit under my head;
Is deimhin nárbh obair liom troscadh le cráifeacht,
293 It was no bother to devoutly fast,
Is greim nó blogam ní shlogainn trí trátha, 294 Three canonical hours between each repast;
In aghaidh an tsrutha do thumainn mo léine, 295 Against the current I’d wash my clothes
Ag súil trí mo chodladh le cogar ó mo chéile, 296 In the hopes that a bachelor would propose.
Is minic do chuaigh mé ag scuabadh an staca, 297 Often I would go and sweep out the byre
Ingne is gruaig faoin luaith-ghríos d’fhágainn, 298 And my nails and hair I would throw in the fire;
Chuirinn an tsúiste faoi chúl an ghabhail, 299 The flail I’d hide in the gable’s shade
Chuirinn an rámhainn go ciúin faoin adhairt chugam,
300 By the head of my bed I’d place the spade
Chuirinn an choigeal i gcillín na háithe, 301 I would put my distaff in the lime kiln
Chuirinn mo cheirtlín i dtine aoil Mhic Rághnaill,
302 I’d secrete my yarn-ball in Reynolds’ mill
Chuirinn an ros ar chorp na sráide 303 I’d scatter seed on the crown of the street
Chuirinn san tsop fúm tor cabáiste. 304 I’d stick a head of cabbage beneath the sheet.
She ends her jeremiad by threatening to use black magic if her luck doesn’t soon change.
http://www.showhouse.com/intro.html (5 of 9)19/06/2011 00:38
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Introduction
An old man, memorably christened Snarlygob by Frank O’Connor, then jumps up and fierely asserts that she has only herself and her wanton ways to blame for her lack of a mate. Her airs and graces are only a show; behind the facade, she is at heart just a trollop from beggarly stock.
He goes on to detail how he himself was betrayed when he was seduced into marrying a young woman who was already pregnant by another man and how his life has gone downhill ever since.
When his wife gave birth, the neighbors conspired against him to hide the baby from his scrutiny, asserting the child was sickly because of its premature birth and needed to be kept covered against the cold.
Upon finally seeing the baby after much insistence, however, he discovers that it is a healthy boy. There follows a strange segue where the obvious health and vigor of the child prompts the old man, despite being cuckolded himself, to burst into a rhapsody on the benefits of illegitimate fatherhood and the vibrancy of bastards, born as they are from passionate unions.
Is leathanmhar láidir lánmhear léadmhar 599 Many who are strong and altogether fine
Fairsing le fáil an t-álmhach saor seo. 600 Sprang from an illegitimate line
Is minic a fheicimse bríomhar borrtha 601 For love is a lustier sire than creed
Cumasach líonta i gcroí is i gcóir iad; 602 And produces a healthier, heartier breed
He urges the court to allow couples to mate without the bonds and burdens of matrimony.
Leis-sin ná hiarrse a ríon réilteach 629 Please don’t subject millions, O Queen of the Sky
Milleadh meiriad le riail gan éifeacht! 630 To a stupid rule with which they must comply
Scaoil ó chodladh gan chochall gan chuibhreach 631 Awake to a life without a bond or chain
Síol an bhodaigh is an mhogall-fhuil mhaoiteach, 632 The country’s people, mighty and plain
Scaoil fá chéile de réir nádúra 633 Allow them to be naturally combined
An síolbhach séad is an braon lábúrtha, 634 Couples from the peasantry and the refined.
Fógair go féiltiúil trí na tíortha 635 Throughout the land may a new rule unfold
D’óg is d’aosta saorthoil síolraigh. 636 Of sexual freedom for young and for old.
http://www.showhouse.com/intro.html (6 of 9)19/06/2011 00:38
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Introduction
Cuirfidh an dlí seo gaois sa nGaeil, 637 This new law will make the Irish proud,
Is tiocfaidh an brí mar bhí ina laochra, 638 The new race will once again be endowed
Ceapfaidh sé com is droim is doirne 639 With all the prowess of the heroes of old,
Ag fir an domhain mar Gholl mac Móirne, 640 The likes of Goll mac Móirne the bold.
Gealfaidh an spéir, beidh éisc i líonta, 641 The sky will brighten, the fish will bite
Is talamh an tsléibhe go léir faoi luibhne, 642 The mountainy land will bloom with no blight
Fir is mná go brách dá mhaíomh, 643 Men and women will sing your praise
Ag seinnm do cháil le gairdeas aoibhnis. 644 And in joyful celebration their voices raise.
Once again taking the stand, the young woman reviles Snarlygob for his inability to satisfy his young wife and his niggardly treatment of her. In the most erotic part of the poem, she “reels off an indignant and marvellously specific list of his inadequacies as a lover and of his wife’s attempts to overcome them” (Seamus Heaney).
She then goes down her own unexpected byway—why are there so many fine specimens of men walled off from the likes of her because of priestly celibacy? Girls like her have reason to know (wink, wink) that beneath the clerical facade beat passionate hearts.
Is chonnaic mé taibhseach roinn dá ramsach 801 I’ve seen incontrovertible evidence that many a son
Is uimhir dá gclainn ar shloinnte falsa. 802 Could call a priest a father in more ways than one.
This leads into the Epilogue where Aoibheal hands down her judgment. Most commentators see this as the weakest part of the poem where Merriman seems to run out of gas a bit and has no great answers for the problems he has posed. Aoibheal’s only specific ruling is a rather conventional one for the genre that men who refuse to marry be tied up and beaten up. As for the celibacy of the clergy, she says she has heard a rumor that the Pope will soon relent (fat chance!) and the hierarchy will come around provided the faithful are not too importunate.
To his horror, the bachelor poet is the first condemned under Aoibheal’s decree and the women of the court swarm over him to exact the punishment. He wakes up and, to his relief, realizes that the whole thing was just a nightmare.
In spite of its love-court setting, the idea of romantic love is absent from The Midnight Court. What is celebrated instead is a sort of early version of free love. Gearóid Ó
http://www.showhouse.com/intro.html (7 of 9)19/06/2011 00:38
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Introduction
Crualaoich sees in this another of Merriman’s twists on the aisling form:
“It was not to any merely mortal royal liberator that Merriman looked for deliverance for country and people but to the older supernatural ‘female’ sovereignty of the spirit of the land itself. Thus he seeks to ensure the return and perpetuation of fertility and prosperity for all, not in the restoration of the Stuart or any other line but in the restoration of the primacy of ‘fonn na fola agus fothrom na sláinte’, the basic, healthy, animal, life instincts of the mature, adult, individual man and woman, free from conventional guilt or shame or repression. In effecting this transformation of the Aisling, Merriman liberates Soveignty or Love—in the person of Aoibheal of Craig Liath—from its mythological role and brings it into play on the plane of the psychological and the naturalistic. … Merriman deliberately chooses to move his Aisling away from this heroic plane, not, however, to indulge the affections but to liberate the psyche in a work that is full and fierce and carnal, and that yet is free of all sentimentality or shame.” ("The Vision of Liberation in Cúirt an Mheán Oíche”, Gearóid Ó Crualaoich, pg. 99.)
Ó Crualaoich also attempts an explanation of one of the mysteries of the poem: Why Merriman should see a declining population as one of Ireland’s main problems at a time when the population was burgeoning to unsustainable levels (at least in the laissez faire economic system so mindlessly followed later by Trevalyan during the Great Famine). Ó Crualaoich suggests that the the demographic situation was in the class-colored eye of the beholder:
“[I]t was in the ranks of the landless labourers and the cottiers that evidence is found for the most frequent and earliest marriages. With the emergence of class differentiation and the competition for land and other resources, there was a tendency for farmers, tradesmen, the better-off in general to marry later, and there is a sizeable statistic of non-marriage within these groups at the time. The ‘match’, the arranged marriage with all its attendant dealing and bargaining and with ‘every shilling brought into account’, was starting to become more frequent in the relatively higher social groupings of later eighteenth-century rural Ireland. Merriman, perhaps to be seen as rising socially, certainly moving, at least partially, in the better-off circles would have been aware of this and would have noticed its discouraging effect on young people’s marriage prospects as the increasingly market-oriented and
http://www.showhouse.com/intro.html (8 of 9)19/06/2011 00:38
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Introduction
class-stratified society developed. Such a class-defined mercenary constraint on the easy coupling of the sexes may well be the social reality that lies behind the young woman’s complaint, which is after all the prime matter regarding which the court of Aoibheal sits.” (ibid., pg. 102.)
Perhaps.
We can, of course, analyze The Midnight Court to death. In the end, it stands or falls as a work of the imagination. “Its author ultimately requires no justifications other than those of his own creative impulses for any assertions in the mouths of its characters” (ibid., pg. 102.). That it has for so long given so much pleasure to so many, and continues to do so, is vindication enough.
Last year, idly paging through a book entitled “1000 Years of Irish Poetry,” I happened on a reprint of Percy Arland Ussher’s translation of Cúirt an Mheán Oíche.
Most Irish school children of my day (and other days, for all I know) learned, in Irish, the first eighteen or so lines of Cúirt an Mheán Oíche by heart. These few lines, anthologized in school poetry collections, were presented to us as a complete stand-alone work, a short lyrical piece about the beauty of nature on a fine summer’s morning (of which Ireland had few enough).
There was never a hint in those classrooms that a thousand more lines followed the measly eighteen we were allowed to glimpse nor, even more so, that stuff in the former was a whole lot more complex and more fun than that in the latter, lyrical though the latter may have been.
In any case, looking at Ussher's translation with the original of those famous eighteen lines still remembered after these many years, it struck me how weakly the English version had captured the original. I had always been particularly struck by the word-picture of two particular lines (7-8):
Ba thaitneamhach aoibhinn suíomh na sléibhte Ag bagairt a gcinn thar dhroim a chéile
Ussher translates this as:
The hills rear their heads on high Over each other's backs to spy
I thought this a disappointingly weak treatment of the original which speaks vigorously of mountains thrusting their heads over each other’s shoulders.
My interest was piqued enough to seek out a copy of the full original poem in Irish
http://www.showhouse.com/version.html (1 of 7)19/06/2011 00:43
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
(which, tellingly, I had never seen) and also others of the several translations I knew existed.
I was surprised at how difficult it was to find a copy of one of the most famous works in the Irish language. Even the many translations seemed no longer to be available in print any more. (At the time, I was unaware of Seamus Heaney’s 1993 translation; I still don’t have a copy of it as I only recently became aware of its existence—and, as it happens, it was a limited edition of only 1,000 copies. Since Heaney titled his translation “The Midnight Verdict”, it did not show up in database searches for “The Midnight Court” and neither did a search on “Merriman” since Heaney, and not Merriman, is identified as the author. Even when I sent an e-mail to Hodges Figgis, Dublin’s premier bookstore, I was told that there was no translation of the work in print. Obviously the respondent from the store was also fooled by the “Midnight Verdict” title since I now know that the book actually shows up in the Hodges Figgis on-line catalogue.)
There are two recently produced Irish version of the text:
● "Cuirt an mhean-oiche" by Brian Merriman, Text and translation by Patrick C. Power, Cork, Mercier, 1986, 2nd ed, 96p., ISBN 1853422443, text in Irish with parallel translation in English.
● "Cuirt an mheon-oiche" le Brian Merriman, Liam P. O Murchu a chuir in eagar, Baile Atha Cliath, An Clochomhar, 1982, 117p, text and old translation from the 1820s.
I have not been able to lay my hand on a copy of either of these.
I thought it a shame that such an intellectually accessible Irish-language work should be so physically or electronically inaccessible. It was something crying for a presence on the World Wide Web where it would be immediately available to anyone connected to that medium.
On the theory that if you want anything done, you may as well do it yourself, I decided why the hell not.
Living in the Washington DC area with the inestimable resources of the Library of Congress at hand, I was able to locate a version of the poem in Irish, edited by Riseárd Ó
http://www.showhouse.com/version.html (2 of 7)19/06/2011 00:43
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
Foghlú and published in 1912. The library also had four translations: the Ussher (1926) translation I already had, Frank O'Connor (1945), David Marcus (1953) and Cosslett Ó Cuinn (1979).
In putting the poem on the Internet, one thing I was able to do was to imitate what I understand Patrick Power had done—a translation side-by-side with the original. That way, people with a little, but by no means fluent Irish, could get a feel for the original as they read through the English version.
The first problem in putting this combined Irish/English version of the Midnight Court on the Internet is the fact that the 1912 Irish edition looks quite archaic and forbidding to modern readers of Irish, young ones at least. In the 1950s, the typography and spelling of the language was updated (not necessarily for the better in many people’s eyes). Therefore, in putting the poem on the Internet and making it accessible to modern readers, I needed to update the language.
To get an idea as to what this means, take the single word:
in Ó Foghlú's text (line 177), it being the present tense form of a verb meaning “to go.” The “t” and the “g” in the middle of this word are silent (the dot over each of the letters is called lenition, séimhiú in Irish—stops being transformed into spirants, but you don’t really want to know) and the whole word simplifies down to “imíonn” in the modern version, which looks a lot less formidable (though giving less, nearly no, information about its roots).
For a more extended example and picking a couple of lines at random (not quite at random, in fact, since the selection illustrates a couple of points I want to make), the original lines 683 and 684 look like this:
In the current version, this becomes:
http://www.showhouse.com/version.html (3 of 7)19/06/2011 00:43
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
In this endeavor, I was not about to edit Merriman’s text itself. Outside of the spelling modernization and other minor cosmetic changes (such as, for instance, the elimination of a separate form for the dative case which, in most instances, it is no longer used—changing “gríosaigh” to “gríosach” in the quoted lines or filling in the lacunae indicated by the inverted comma above, “comhartha easnaimh,” so that ’s colann becomes is colainn), the text is unchanged.
Translating The Midnight Court
If putting the Irish text and English translation side by side on the web was to be a useful exercise, the translation would have to follow the original quite closely for a reader to be able to follow the original from the translation. None of the four translations I had met that test—for instance, the Ussher translation is about 130 shorter than the original; the O’Cuinn version takes four lines to translate each two of the original, etc.
In short, the exigencies of the project called for a new translation (which had the added and considerable benefit of avoiding copyright problems). And that is what is on this site; not a single line is taken from any of the aforementioned translations—actually, I lifted one line (601) from Ussher: For love is a lustier sire than creed, which seemed so well put, I couldn’t resist.
I worked within a couple of constraints.
The translation imitates the original in that it is in rhyming couplets. Furthermore, as far as possible, I kept a one-to-one correspondence between the Irish and English versions where each line in the English text translated its corresponding line in the Irish. This was not always possible; sometimes within a particular couplet, I found it worked better to flip the first and second lines. However, each couplet corresponds exactly to its opposite number so that each two lines in the English translates the corresponding two lines in the Irish. I followed this constraint strictly and there are no exceptions to it throughout the poem although the translation is more literal in some cases than others, depending on what was needed to get across the sense of the original within the constraints adopted.
One of the things one quickly finds in this exercise, is that Irish is quite an economical
http://www.showhouse.com/version.html (4 of 7)19/06/2011 00:43
language in that it can put more ideas in fewer words than English can. Thus, I found that Merriman might have four concepts in a line (in describing a person, for instance) but that I could only get two of them to fit in a line of similar length in English. It was presumably to this fact that Coslett O’Cuinn formally surrendered in basically using twice the number of lines in English for his translation as are in the Irish original. For myself, I put as many ideas of the original as I could fit in the available space and left it at that.
Merriman uses adjectival exuberance in his descriptions of people, whether in praise of the beautiful or in excoriation of the ugly. The head, the face, the neck, the chest, the legs, the fingers and toes, all can become candidates for elaborate, florid description. Sometimes, this becomes the equivalent of a riff in jazz or a cadenza in classical music, parenthetic flourishes where the music of the words counts for more than the meaning they impart. Elaborate alliterative word-play is involved where it is almost impossible, in translation, to convey the effect.
It’s like a set of equations in mathematics: the more constraints you impose, the harder it is to arrive at a solution. Just to translate the poem into rhyming couplets that make sense is a difficult enough chore; to try to introduce alliterative requirements makes it next to impossible.
In fact, I tried it with just one of the passages of this sort:
Mo chuma is mo chrá ba bhreá san éad 749 Bejasus, such jealousy could be understood
Ar lúbaire láidir lánmheas léadmhar 750 In a strapping, stout-hearted, sterling stud
Balcaire buan nó buailteoir bríomhar, 754 A steadfast stalwart, a topnotch thresher
Ach seanduine seanda cranda creimneach, 755 Not in an ossified oldster, a grumpy grunt
Fámaire fann is feam gan féile. 756 An incompetent idler, a reclusive runt.
It can be done but it is an exhausting exercise. One can sympathize with the poets of the bardic schools in Ireland who did this sort of thing for a living and who would lie down in a darkened room for a day and a night striving to come up with the just-right word. Staring at a computer screen rather than into a dark void doesn’t make it any easier.
http://www.showhouse.com/version.html (5 of 7)19/06/2011 00:43
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
The Glossary
As a final aid to students of the language, I have included a glossary. It is extensive (860 definitions—what great counting powers computers have!—for a 1,026-line poem, many of them referring to multiple occurrences) but it is not exhaustive. There is no great rhyme or reason to whether I included a word or not (I think that as I went along through the work, I increasingly realized that the glossary might be a valuable aid and, thus, I became more inclusive) but, generally, I think I have included all the more difficult or unusual words.
There are two ways to access the glossary: A single file or a set of files for each letter of the alphabet.
● The single glossary file is large (62K) and thereby slow-loading, even from the cache. If a reader wants to consult the glossary extensively while reading through the poem, it would be advisable to open the glossary in a separate browser window. This can be done in Windows machines, with either Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer, by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing N—this is the procedure for version 4 of each of these programs; I’m not sure about earlier versions. The glossary can then be loaded in this new window—it’s located at:
http://www.homesteader.com/merriman/glossary.html
—and the reader can move between the window where the text is and the glossary by holding down the Alt key and pressing the Tab key until the desired window is selected.
● A set of individual files for each letter of the alphabet. This is a more sophisticated dictionary system than the single file, making it easier to find individual words. But while each file is smaller than the large single file, the additional functionality means that, in the aggregate, they are larger—and the files for the letters “c” (31K) and “s” (27K), the two most common initial letters, are quite large in their own right.
Siúlann an file amach leis féin maidin shamhraidh agus castar spéirbhean uafásach air. Sracann sí ina diaidh é tríd an lathach go dtí Cnoc Mhánmhaí áit a bhfuil cúirt á stiúradh ag Aoibheal, ríon álainn na sí.
Glossary
Part One: The Prologue
The poet sets out alone on a summer morning and encounters a fearsome vision woman. She drags him through the mud to Monmoy Hill where a court is sitting presided over by Aoibheal, a beautiful fairy queen.
Ba ghnáth mé ar siúl le ciumhais na habhann 1 Twas my custom to stroll with the river in view
Ar bháinseach úr is an drúcht go trom, 2 Through the fresh meadows covered with dew,
In aice na gcoillte i gcoim an tsléibhe 3 By the edge of the woods on the wild mountain-side
Gan mhairg gan mhoill ar shoilseadh an lae. 4 At the dawn of the day I’d cheerfully stride.
Do ghealadh mo chroí nuair chínn Loch Gréine, 5 My heart would brighten Loch Graney to spy,
An talamh, an tír, is íor na spéire 6 And the country around it, to the edge of the sky.
Ba thaitneamhach aoibhinn suíomh na sléibhte 7 The serried mountains were a delight to the beholder
Ag bagairt a gcinn thar dhroim a chéile. 8 Thrusting their heads over each other’s shoulder.
Ghealfadh an croí bheadh críon le cianta— 9 ’Twould lighten the heart wizened with years—
Caite gan bhrí nó líonta le pianta— 10 Triflingly spent or drenched with tears—
An séithleach searbh gan sealbh gan saibhreas 11 Of the bitter outcast without wealth or goods
D’fhéachfadh tamall thar bharra na gcoillte 12 To catch a glimpse o’er the top of the woods
Ar lachain ina scuain ar chuan gan cheo, 13 Of the ducks paddling by in the pellucid bay,
An eala ar a bhfuaid is í ag gluaiseacht leo, 14 Escorting the swan on her stately way,
Na héisc le meidhir ag éirí anairde 15 Of the fish in joyous arching flight
Péirse i radharc go taibhseach tarrbhreac, 16 And of the perch, a speckled spritely sight,
Dath an locha agus gorm na dtonn 17 Of the blue surging swell on the tinted lake
Ag teacht go tolgach torannach trom, 18 Crashing ashore with a thunderous quake,
Bhíodh éanlaith i gcrann go meidhreach mómhar, 19 Of the birds in the trees merrily singing,
Léimneach eilte i gcoillte im chóngar, 20 While the deer through the woods are nimbly springing,
http://www.showhouse.com/prologue.html (1 of 5)17/06/2011 13:27
Preabann seanfhear anuas le freagra a thabhairt ar an ógbhean. Deir sé gur ar shaol mígheanmnaí na mná óga féin an milleán go bhfuil siad i gcruachás. Cuireann sé síos ar a phósadh féin agus faoi mar a bhí an bhrídeach torrach ó fhear eile i ngan fhios dó. (Dá ainneoin sin, molann sé leanaí tabhartha go hard níos déanaí mar chuid den impí aige ar Aoibheal deireadh a chur leis an bpósadh.)
Glossary
Part Three: The Old Man
Up jumps an old man to answer the young woman. He blames the dissolute life of young women for the predicament in which they find themselves. He recounts the circumstances of his own marriage at the time of which and unknown to him, his bride was pregnant by another. (In spite of this cuckoldry, he later praises bastards highly as part of his plea to Aoibheal to end the institution of marriage.)
Preabann anuas go fuadrach fíochmar 357 Then fiercely jumped up a grey old dodger
Seanduine suarach is fuadach nimhe faoi, 358 There was fire in the eyes of that greasy codger
A bhaill ar luascadh is luas anáile air, 359 His limbs were shaking, his breathing wild
Draighean is duais ar fud a chnámha. 360 It was clear that he was thoroughly riled.
Ba dhearóil an radharc go deimhin don chúirt é 361 He glared at the court with a look inflamed
Ar bord ina thaibhse im éisteacht dúirt sé:— 362 And, in my hearing, he then declaimed:—
Dochair is díobháil is síorchrá cléibhe ort 363 I wish you naught but damage and hurt
A thoice le místaid, a shíol gábha is déirce, 364 You miserable hussy, descended from dirt
Is dóigh nach iontas laigeacht na gréine 365 I suppose it’s no wonder the sun is weak
Is fós gach tubaist dar imigh ar Éire, 366 And that Ireland’s lot is unbelievably bleak
Mar mheath gach ceart gan reacht gan dlí againn, 367 Our rights are gone, the law’s a laugh
Ár mba bhí bleacht gan lacht gan laonna acu, 368 Our cows, once fertile, without milk or calf.
Is dá dtagadh níos mó de mhórscrios tíortha 369 It’s no great surprise about the country’s woes
Is gach faisean dá nuacht ar Mhóir is ar Shíle. 370 With Mór and Síle sporting the latest clothes.
A thoice gan chríoch nach cuimhin le táinte 371 You’re an absolute transcendental bitch
Olcas na síolrach daoine ó dtángais, 372 Everyone knows you were born in a ditch
Gan focal le maíomh ag do shinsear gránna 373 Your ugly ancestors can’t boast of their blood
Ach lopaigh gan bhrí, lucht míre is mála. 374 They’re aimless louts, sprung from the mud.
Is aithnid dúinne an snamhaire is athair duit, 375 Everyone knows your father’s a creep
Gan chara gan chlú gan chúl gan airgead, 376 Without friends or fame, common and cheap
http://www.showhouse.com/midnight_court3.html (1 of 10)17/06/2011 13:32
Tá an ainnir arís ar an mbínse ag magadh an tseanfhir faoin mbealach inar theip air a bhean óg a shásamh. Deir sí go mba chóir iachall a chur ar fhir óga pósadh, is gan eisceacht a dhéanamh do shagairt na tíre.
Glossary
Part Four: The Young Woman Again
The young woman again takes the stand mocking the old man’s inability to satisfy his young wife. She advocates forcing young men to marry with the clergy not being exempt from that edict.
Tar éis bheith tamall don ainnir ag éisteacht 645 After the girl had heard his harangue
Do léim ina seasamh go tapa gan foighne, 646 With great impatience, to her feet she sprang,
Do labhair sí leis agus loise ina súile 647 With fire in her eyes on him she gazed
Is rabhartaí feirge feilce fúithi:— 648 And spoke in a voice that was trembling and crazed:—
Dar Coróin na Carraige murach le géilleadh 649 By Craglea’s Crown, if I wasn't thinking
Dod chló dod ainnis is d’easnamh do chéille 650 How your health is failing, your faculties sinking
Is d’am na hurraime don chuideachta shéimh seo 651 And of the respect that’s due to this court
An ceann lem ingin do sciobfainn ded chaolscroig,
652 With my nails, I’d scratch your face and throat
Do leagfainn anuas de thuairt faoin mbord thú 653 I’d knock you with a mighty crash to the ground
Is is fada le lua gach cuairt dá bhfaighinn ort 654 And it would long be talked of how often you went down
Go stróicfinn sreanga do bheatha le fonn ceart 655 Until I had cut your mortal cord
Is go seolfainn t’anam go Acheron tonnach. 656 So that across Acheron you were being oared..
Ní fiú liom freagra freastail do thabhairt ort, 657 It’s beneath my dignity to answer you straight
A shnamhaire fleascaigh nach aithis do labhartha!
658 You sniveling slimeball, your speech’s inchoate
Ach inseoidh mé feasta do mhaithe na cúirte 659 But I want to inform the worthies of the court
An nós inar cailleadh an ainnir nárbh fhiú thú:— 660 Of the horrible life of one above your sort:—
Bhí sí lag, gan bha gan phuint, 661 She was vulnerable, without cattle or dough
Bhí sí i bhfad gan teas gan clúdadh, 662 Always freezing without heat or a throw
Cortha dhá saol, ar strae dhá seoladh 663 Tired of life, astray without direction
Ó phost go piléar gan ghaol gan chóngas, 664 From pillar to post, with no relative’s affection,
http://www.showhouse.com/midnight_court4.html (1 of 8)17/06/2011 13:33
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--An Breithiúnas is an Réiteach
Cuirt an Mheán Oíche—The Midnight Court le/by
Brian Merriman
Foclóir
Cuid a Cúig: An Breithiúnas is an Réiteach
Tugann Aoibheal a breithiúnas ar na fadhbanna a bhí pléite sa chúirt. Tairngríonn sí go mbeidh cead ag na sagairt pósadh go luath agus ceadaíonn sí géarleanúint ar fhir nach bhfuil sásta pósadh. Sé an file an chéad duine a thoghtar le sciúirseáil a dhéanamh air.
Glossary
Part Five: The Judgment and Resolution
Aoibheal issues her judgment on the issues brought before the court. She foretells that priests soon will be allowed to marry and she gives permission for the persecution of recalcitrant bachelors. The poet finds to his horror that he is the first to face the music.
D’éirigh an mhánla ar bharr a bínse, 855 The day was dawning out in the street,
Is do shoilsigh an lá san áit ina timpeall, 856 As Aoibheal rose up from her seat
B’álainn óg a cló is a caoindreach, 857 She had a youthful glow on her form and face
B’ard a glór ba bheo is ba bhíogach. 858 Her voice was strong and full of grace
D’fháisc a dóirne is d’ordaigh deimhneach 859 She clasped her hands and with vehemence
Báille ar bord ag fógairt Silence. 860 Instructed the bailiff to order Silence
Adúirt a béal bhí ag séideadh soilse,— 861 The whole of the court gradually grew quiet
An chúirt go léir go faon ag éisteacht:— 862 And she spoke these words in a voice so bright—
Faghaimse díreach brí chun buaite 863 I find lot’s of merit in the case you bring
Is feidhm id chaíntse a bhrídeach bhuartha. 864 It was a hell of a speech, you poor young thing.
Feicím, is is dóigh gur dóite an radharc liom, 865 I see, and it’s a sight that’s certainly grave,
Síolrach Órfhlaith Mhóire is Mheidhbhe, 866 That the descendants of Orla, Mór and Meave
An seifteoir caol is an créatúr cladhartha, 867 Are now sly connivers and spineless creatures
An ceisteoir claon is an déirceoir daigheartha, 868 Creepy characters and poor alms-seekers
Sú na táire is tál na coimse 869 The lowliest of the low and the fairly well off
Ag súil le sárfhuil sámh na saoithe. 870 Desperately coveting the bloodlines of the toff.
Achtáimid mar dlí do bhéithe 871 These are the laws that will govern from this date:
An seacht faoi thrí gan chuibhreach céile 872 One: He who reaches twenty-one without a mate
Do tharraing ar cheann go teann gan trua 873 Shall be dragged off by the hair of his head
http://www.showhouse.com/epilogue.html (1 of 7)17/06/2011 13:35
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--An Breithiúnas is an Réiteach
Is thúirling Mac an tseachtain roimhe-sin. 1,020 From which we’ll date Year One of our history.
Glacann sí a peann is mo cheannsa suaite 1,021 As she grabbed a pen my head did hang
Ar eagla m’fheannta is scanradh an bhuailte; 1,022 In terror of more torture from that gang;
An feadh do bhí sí ag scríobh an dáta 1,023 While she was writing down the date
Is maithe an tí aici suite ar gárdaí, 1,024 Which the court members round her could corroborate
Do scaras lem néal, do réidheas mo shúile, 1,025 I woke from my sleep, my pit of despair
Is do phreabas de léim ón bpéin dom dhúiseacht! 1,026 And realized with relief—it was just a nightmare.
An Deireadh
The End
This task of editing and translating was completed on February 27, 1998. I bid farewell to the work and wish it well on its journey around the wide world.
Fill ar ais ar Chlár Chinn na Cúirte/ Return to the Midnight Court Main Page
http://www.showhouse.com/epilogue.html (7 of 7)17/06/2011 13:35
bé, pl. béithecailín, ógbheanLines: 286, 966; pl. 68, 178, 792, 805, 828, 833, 871, 929, 952, 968
beachantawaspish, stinging, fretful; mar do bheadh beach (Ó Foghlú)Line: 215
béaltaiswet-lippedLine: 150
beannpeak, point; 138: binn an teampaill: an falla aonair a bhí ina sheasamh i mbl. a 1780 de sheanteampall Mhochunna sa bhFiacail; 586: na beanna a bhí ar chinn na mban le héad nó formad; horns of jealousyLine: 138
buíonmharfond of company, having a large following; with abundant forcesLine: 72
bunócinfantLine: 534
Return to Beginning of Glossary
C
cábacape, cloakLine: 135
cabhailtrunk, torso; the body of a shirt, coat, etc., a woman’s bodice, a camisoleLines: 379, 487, 875
cafairepraterLine: pl. 779
http://www.showhouse.com/glossary_full.html (10 of 75)19/06/2011 00:49
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
caílamenting, weepingLine: 210
cáidhholy, chaste, pure, famous, excellent; 191: as subst.: an excellent personLine: 191
caidhp, gs.: ~ecoif, lady's bonnet, capLine: 258
cailcchalk; gs. in sense of beautyLine: 242
cailegirl, wench, hussyLines: 219, 241
cailleacha veiled woman, a nun, a celibate woman (cf. caille: a veil); an old woman, a hag; 179: cailleacha dubha: unwed women; 286: c. cártaí: women who tell fortunes with cards (Dinneen), “old maid”, the card game (Ó Foghlú)Lines: 179, 218, 286, 316
cáimfault, blemish; gan ch.: flawlessLines: 255, 627
cáimriccambricLine: 394
cairdeascairdeasLines: 128, 982
calaoisdeceit, fraudLine: 90
calcadhhardeningLine: 816
http://www.showhouse.com/glossary_full.html (11 of 75)19/06/2011 00:49
críoch113: end; 76, 1013: territory; 436: means; 316, 371: prosperity, success, benefit, profit; 177: marriage (cf. cailín a chur i gcr.: to get a girl, daughter, married)
http://www.showhouse.com/glossary_full.html (19 of 75)19/06/2011 00:49
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
Lines: 76, 113, 316, 371, 436, 1013 críontach
an old personLine: 1014
criosgirdle, belt, waist-bandLine: 708
crithimto tremble, shakeLine: 464
crobhairestrong, able personLines: 487, 627
croitheadhto shakeLine: 627
cromadhact of bending, stoopingLine: 850
crúact of milkingLine: 669
cruachrick, heapLine: 796
crúcahook, crookLine: 135
crústaa crust of bread, of frost; hard, hardy person; close-fisted miser; a clod, a useless personLine: 959
doghrainnaffliction, hardship, difficulty; le d.: with difficulty, harshipLine: 206
dóighhope, trust confidence, 365, 865, is d.: surely; 562, doubtless; 739, an d.: can it be?; ní d.: it cannot be; dom dh.: I imagine Lines: 365, 562, 693, 739, 811, 865
freastallot, number; f. fuíollach: remainder after subtractionLine: 1019
frínsefringeLine: 397
fríth
http://www.showhouse.com/glossary_full.html (35 of 75)19/06/2011 00:49
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
(pf. passive of faighim) was found; to find, get, receive; cár fríoth é?: how came it all?Line: 418
fuadachplundering, carrying off; the severe blowing of a storm, a squall; 358, f. nimhe: a venomous disposition (Dinneen); 194: sciobadh chun siúil (Ó Foghlú)Lines: 43, 194, 358
misde(combined form of measa de, used with copula) is misde (do): it matters (to), ní misde… (go): it is no harm to… (that); cár mhiste mé rith in éadóchas: what does it matter if I despairLine: 250
místaid, gs.: ~ebad state, ill condition
http://www.showhouse.com/glossary_full.html (51 of 75)19/06/2011 00:49
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
Line: 364 mithid
due, convenient, time; is mithid: it is high timeLine: 757
modhmode, manner, system; modh is díreach: pretty apparentLine: 993
séideadhact of blowing, breathing fast; ag s. soilse: speaking brilliantly (Dinneen)Line: 861
seifteoirprovider, a resourceful person, a makeshift, a frail person; an s. caol: the sly contriver (Dinneen)Line: 867
sílconsider, thinkLine: 269
sileándrippingLine: 410
siltedripped, distilled, poured; unhandy, ineffective, exhausted, spent; dá mbeinnse s. mar thuilleadh de mo chomharsana: were I inefficient like others of my neighbours (Dinneen)Line: 247
síogachstreaky, stripedLine: 264
siolbhachseed, progenyLine: 634
siolla45, a glance; 558, a puff; 903, a syllableLines: 45, 558, 903
síolraighbreed, propagateLine: 549
síon
http://www.showhouse.com/glossary_full.html (61 of 75)19/06/2011 00:49
http://www.showhouse.com/glossary_full.html (63 of 75)19/06/2011 00:49
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
Lines: 812, 856 soineanta
séimh, ciúinLine: 433
somachán or somach, pl. somaighan innocent lubberly young manLines: 323, 617, 595
sopwisp, small bundle of strawLine: 304
sotalachproud, arrogant, cock, impudentLine: 221
spaida clod, anything inferior or useless, refuse, a barren person; d’imigh im s. gan fear gan páiste: I who was left for a sorry spinster (Dinneen)Line: 184
spícespikeLine: 59
sporspurLine: 933
sporannspur, incite, provokeLine: 933
spreasdry twig, stick of firewood, effete worthless personLines: 619, 668
spriongaract of playing; imirtLine: 710
sracaimto drag, pullLine: 134
sracthatorn, tossed, battered
http://www.showhouse.com/glossary_full.html (64 of 75)19/06/2011 00:49
http://www.showhouse.com/glossary_full.html (65 of 75)19/06/2011 00:49
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
stangachpetty, self-willed, rudeLine: 220
stiúirsteering apparatus, rudder; a bend or inclination, attitude; a rakish attitude or appearance; starch is s. i gcúl mo chaidhpe: my coif starched and set at a gallant angle (Dinneen)Line: 258
● “Cúirt an Mheadhon Oidhche, Bryan Merrymna cct, Riseárd Ó Foghlú, .i. Fiachra Éilgeach, do chuir in eagar,” Hodges, Figgis & Co. Ltd., Dublin, 1912., 185p. Note: Includes valuable introduction to the poem by Piaras Béaslaí; a biography of Merriman, a glossary and a discussion of sources by Ó Foghludha.
● “Cuirt an mheadhon oidhche le Brian Merriman,” Risteard O Foghludha do chuir in eagar, Dublin, Hodges, Figgis, 1949, 48p.
● “The midnight court = Cuirt an mheadhoin oidhche” by Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre, Dublin, Celtic Press, 1909, 39p., Censored version (!)
Text & Translation
Text and English Translation:
● “Cuirt an mhean-oiche” by Brian Merriman, Text and translation by Patrick C. Power, Cork, Mercier, 1986, 2nd ed, 96p., ISBN 1853422443. Note: text in Irish, parallel translation in English.
● “Cuirt an mheon-oiche” le Brian Merriman, Liam P. O Murchu a chuir in eagar, Baile Atha Cliath, An Clochomhar, 1982, 117p. Note: According to the The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature—“The definitive text, together with Woulf’s translation.” The Woulfe in question is Denis Woulfe (Donnchadh Ulf), another Clareman, who, in the 1820s, was the first to translate the work.
http://www.showhouse.com/bibliography.html (1 of 4)19/06/2011 00:50
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
Text and German Translation:
● "Brian Merrimans Cúirt an mheadhóin oidhche," Text and German translation (“Der mitternächtige Gerichtshof”) by Ludw. Chr. Stern, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, V. Band, herausgegeben von Kuno Meyer und L. Chr. Stern, Halle a.S., M. Niemeyer, 1905, 193-415. Note: Includes extensive introduction, notes on variants, West Munster speech patterns, modern Irish meters, and an exhaustive glossary—but all are in German. "The first adequate edition of the Cuirt," Piaras Béaslaí.
Translation
English:
● “The midnight court and The adventures of a luckless fellow,” Translated from the Gaelic by Percy Arland Ussher with a pref. by W. B. Yeats & woodcuts by Frank W. Peers. Published: [Folcroft, Pa.] Folcroft Library Editions, 1974, 79 p. illus. 23 cm., ISBN: 0841488525, Reprint of the 1926 edition published by Boni and Liveright, New York. Note: This is the first verse translation of the work. The Adventures of a Luckless Fellow referred to in the title is a translation of Eachtra Ghiolla an Amaráin (c. 1750), a lengthy poem by Donncha Rua Mac Conmara (1715-1810). In it, the poet describes his possibly imaginary emigration to Newfoundland. In a bout of seasickness, the goddess Aoibheall of Liath Craig, who plays a central role in the Cúirt, appears to the poet and takes him to Acheron.
● “The midnight court by Bryan Merriman,” Newly translated into English by David Marcus, with cuts by Michael Biggs, Dublin, Dolmen Press, 1967, 43p.
● “The midnight court by Brian Merriman,” a new translation by Cosslett O Cuinn with illustrations by John Verling, The Mercier
http://www.showhouse.com/bibliography.html (2 of 4)19/06/2011 00:50
Press, Dublin & Cork, 1982, 87p., ISBN 0853426570, 0853426589.
● Frank O'Connor (as far as I know, the following are different editions of O'Connor's 1945 translation):
● “The midnight court by Brian Merriman,” Translated by Frank O'Connor illustrated by Brian Bourke, Dublin, O'Brien Press, 1989, 72p. ISBN 0862781892
● “The Midnight Court: A Rhythmical Bacchanalia from the Irish of Bryan Merryman translated by Frank O'Connor,” Haskell House Publishers, Ltd., New York, 1974, 48p., includes eight-page introduction by Frank O'Connor
● “The Midnight Court,” translated by Frank O'Connor, M. Fridberg, London, 1947
● “The Midnight Verdict” by Seamus Heaney, Dublin, Gallery Press, 1993, 42p., ISBN 1852351306. Note: Limited ed. of 1,000 copies, 75 of which are numbered and signed by the author.
Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic):
● “Cùirt a’ Mheadhain-oidhche” le Uilleam Neill, Gairm, aireamhan 130 agus 131, Glaschu, 1985. Nota: Gairm—an ràitheachan Gàidhlig a dh’ fhoillsicheas sgeulachdan goirid, bàrdachd, altan mu chuspairean an latha an-diugh, sgrùdaidhean, orain etc. Co-fhreagairt: Ruaraidh MacThòmais, 29 Sràid Bhatairliu, Glaschu G2 6BZ Alba Tel: 0141-221-1971. (29 Waterloo Street Glasgow, G2 6BZ)
Literary Criticism
● “Merriman’s Secret: An Interpretation,” Piaras Béaslaí, in Cuirt an mheadhon oidhche, Riseard O Foghludha do chuir in eagar, Dublin, Hodges Figgis, 1912.
http://www.showhouse.com/bibliography.html (3 of 4)19/06/2011 00:50
Cúirt an Mheán Oíche--Gluais
● “Brian Merriman,” Chapter IX of The Hidden Ireland: A Study of Gaelic Munster in the Eighteenth Century Daniel Corkery, Gill & Son, Dublin & Melbourne, 1924.
● “Cúirt an Mheán Oíche,” Seán Ó Tuama, Studia Hibernica, 4 (1964) 7-27.
● “Brian Merriman and his Court,” Seán Ó Tuama, Irish University Review, II, 1981, pp. 149-164.
● “The Vision of Liberation in Cúirt an Mheán-Oíche,” Gearóid Ó Crualaoich, Folia Gadelica, aistí ó iardhaltai leis a bronnadh ar R.A. Breathnach, M.A., M.R.I.A., i ndeireadh a théarma mar Ollamh le Teanga agus Litríocht na Gaeilge i gColáiste Ollscoile Chorcaí arna gcur in eagar ag Padraig de Brún, Seán Ó Coileáin, Pádraig Ó Riain, Cork University Press, Cork, 1983.
● “Orpheus in Ireland: On Brian Merriman’s The Midnight Court,” Seamus Heaney, The Redress of Poetry, Farrar, Straus and Girouz, New York, 1995.
Anthologized
● “The Midnight Court,” Brian Merriman, translated by Arland Ussher, in 1000 Years of Irish Poetry, Kathleen Hoagland ed., The Universal Library, Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1962.
● “Cúirt an Mheán Oíche,” in An Duanaire: An Irish Anthology—1600-1900: Poems of the Dispossessed, Presented by Seán Ó Tuama with translations into English verse by Thomas Kinsella, The University of Philadelphia Press, Philadelphia, 1981. 372 lines of text and translation.