Nollaig shona dhiaibh go léir!

[hawkwing_lb]

Progress, Saturday 24 December 2005:

"Dreamdark, or, the Confused-Title Story"

New words: handwritten, so *shrug*. Also, not finished yet. But, it's good!

Writing this thing backwards may actually work.

-------------------------


Nollaig shona dhiaibh, a chairde. Go n-éirí an t-ádh agus an geal libh go deo, anois agus sna laethanta seo chugainn.

Le gach dea-ghuí,

Mise, mé fein, agus mé :-)

Edit: Translation, for those of an interested bent, may be found in the comments.

Comments

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Translation for those of us who are Irish-impaired? I can get a word here and there, but it's not enough to understand the meaning of it all. :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!

Ginger

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Translations a speciality (not. But let's pretend I'm actually fluent, okay?).

'A happy Christmas/December to you, friends. May the luck and the light be with you ever, now and in the days to come. With every best wish, me, myself, and I.'

Essentially, 'Happy Holidays!'

This is not a literal translation, by the by. Irish doesn't take kindly to literal translations :-).

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Um. And geal isn't exactly light. That would solas. Geal is brightness. Liberties taken for poetry of translation. Also, probably at least one error of grammar: I never did get the genitive case quite down. :-)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

No prob - I never did learn the cases, just some vocab. I am quite aware that Irish is not linearly inclined, thus not kindly to literal translations. ;-) In fact, I think of Irish as inclined to the most circuitous, tortuous route to saying something. It's a shame more of us don't know Irish. ;-)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

inclined to the most circuitous, tortuous route

Not exactly :-). Although learning that the only way to say 'only' in Irish is to say 'not but' (níl ach), and that there's two forms of the present tense of the verb 'to be', continuous and immediate... Well, it goes some way towards explaining the dialectical differences between Irish English and English English :-).

Ach, bhuel, níl mé comh líofach leis sin...

I'm not that fluent. :-). Still, I'm wondering now whether google will take me to any online Irish poetry archives. :-)

Hmm. An dán grá and An aisling polaitiúil, anyone? A (brief) history of Irish language and literature, in installments?

*makes note to look down books out of attic*

No! No! I promised myself I'd never look at an Irish text book again!

*bangs head on desk*

Nooo!

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

[evil laugh] Commmme to the dark side, young one! But only if you want to, of course. :-D I can wait. Oh, how I can wait. You know how cats will sometimes hunker down next to where they think the mousie is? Sitting patiently for days? That's me. ;-)

Two forms of the present tense of "to be"? Well. It seems that "to be" is an irregular verb in every language on Earth. Sum, esse, potui? The last is what one says when one realizes one has forgotten the rest of "to be". ;-)

No, what might be more fun is comparative Irish English and American English. For example, in American, "get stuffed" is completely and utterly different from the British English phrase. Suspenders, braces, windbreakers versus windcheaters...the like.

It's good to be multilingual, particularly in multi-English. ;-) We need to find an Anglo Canadian, eh?

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

You just wait :-). If this turns into a forum for Imparting Knowledge to the Uninitiated in the form of essays in Irish, it will be All Your Fault. :-)

Eh. And an Antipodean, right mate? :-)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Too right mate! Some of me Irish rellies moved to Aussie! (OK, so it was the rellies from before the turn of the last century, but still.)

Oi love Strine, mate. Beaut, eh?

The funny thing is, Aussies and Americans have a lot in common. Perhaps we can make this the Forum for Comparative Anglo-Irish History, eh? ;-)

Essays in Irish..the mind boggles. But if the fault is mine, then gladly the cross-eyed bear. Er. Onwards. ;-)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Forum for Comparative Anglo-Irish History

Carry on, friends all; we shall not mention that pesky little Anglo word. :-)

(joking, folks, joking)

Essays in Irish..the mind boggles

Should it ever happen, oh eeevil one, translations will be provided. And then the educated can boggle at my grammatical errors, instead :-).

A dhaoine uaisle, táim anseo inniú chun díospóireacht a thosú ar áhbar suimúil tábhachtach -

- Noooo!

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Carry on, friends all; we shall not mention that pesky little Anglo word. :-)

Yes, well, I never said we wouldn't discuss dirty words either. I admit, we should put the Irish first: Forum for Comparative Irish-Diasporan History. Howzat? ;-)

Don't despair..divert it into evil Irish essays. Yessssssss...your evil grows. Ssssooon your power will be near to that of mine...and then we ssshall ssseeee....

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Off-topic, but...

Your icon has killed me dead.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Who, me?

I first saw the kitty licking the screen as a little movie somewhere on the web ("washing windows" or some such); I was very pleased to stumble across it as an icon so I happily stole it for my own. I forget who I stole it from; it's in my notes somewhere.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Yes! Yes! Irish should go first!

There is no Comparative History! There is only the One True Irish History!

*shoves national patriotic frenzy into box marked 'Pointless; also Stupid' and closes the lid*

Um. Irish has scrambled my brain... overcoming psycho-linguistic programming now. Of course there should be comparative history. Please, carry on.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

ROFL..we could trade. I could give you pointless American History and Great Works of American Literature (or at least Great Writing) that I am quite sure your teachers never mentioned. :-D I was thinking of the Gettysberg Address on my way home tonight, as I was passing the Battlefield. (your cue to say, what battle? ;-))

Comparative History: see, we're all just the same, only painted in different colors. Besides, the Irish went all over the world, eh? Someone from my grandmother's home town moved to Cuba; her son (I think) moved to the US and her grandson was my clarinet tutor. "Hickeys" in Ireland became "Xiques" in Cuba. True story. And Anne McCaffrey used my grandmother's town as the name of one of her heroines, so as you can see, the Irish are extremely influential. ;-)

Carrying on. Which, by the way, has a slightly different meaning here. ;-)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Gettysburg... we knows that name, precious.

Gettysburg - arguably the most significant battle of the American Civil War. Took place over the first three days of July, 1863. Generals commanding: Meade and Lee. Total casualties: in excess of 50,000.

I always thought that Cemetary Ridge sounded like an appropriate place to die.

What? I just looked up my Cassell's The American Civil War. No need to look at me like that :-).

Yes. There will be none of that carry-on in this LJ. :-) Carrying on with the subject of comparative history, though - Anne McCaffrey named a heroine after an Irish town? Which town?

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I am impressed with your encyclopedic knowlege of the American Civil..wait. Oh, yes, there is a need to look at you like that. Missy.

Killashandra Ree is the heroine, of Crystal Singer. ;-) Now you know. It makes sense, because the Cavan Crystal Company (like Waterford, only less famous) is in Cavan,not too far from Killashandra, on the Dublin Road. I can only guess that she went to Cavan Crystal and stopped by Killashandra on her way home. ;-) It's got a few pubs in it, it does. It still has the creamery, but the train station is long gone.

Sadly, we did not go to the crystal factory. We did however, go to the Lace Museum in..some small town on the way to Enniskillen. Yes, taking an 8-yr old boy to the Lace Museum was a big hit. He and I played footie in the parking lot after a whirlwind tour of the museum. :-P

Must go back again, and this time without the annoying cousin-whom-I've-never-seen-before (and praise deity-of-choice, never again). Stop me before I rant again.

We also did not go to the forest of Killykeen, and ride the ponies. Both of these were scheduled (by my Auntie M) for the first day of our trip. As in, just hours after we got off the plane, from an all-night flight, ate breakfast at the airport, and drove from Dublin to Killashandra. Can you say "exhausted", boys and girls? I knew you could.

Auntie M was in fine fettle, oh yes she was. Sorry. I'm ranting again, aren't I?

Off to check a mouse now.

::skulks away::

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

there is a need to look at you like that

Who, me? :-)

Crystal Singer. I remember reading that. Maybe ten years ago? So Killashandra is a town in Cavan, with a crystal factory.

Lace Museum. Huh. I didn't know people actually had lace museums. My ignorance has been ameliorated.

Sounds like you had a hectic visit. :-) Could have done with a day's rest in between getting off the plane and the drive down, maybe? :-)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Yes, you. ("Can't be. Then who?" and so on ad infinitum)

Cavan has the crystal factory, and Killashandra is a small town with a large lake not too far away. Of course, in Ireland, nothing is too far away. The time it takes to drive there, however, is another story.

Yes, neither did I know there was such an animal as a Lace Museum. It's somewhere just outside Enniskillen, across the border into the North. On a lake, IIRC. We drove around a bit, as we were too early to meet my cousin in Enniskillen and we'd done the museum. Done quite thoroughly, to be sure. Not a bit of lace was left unlooked at. I did manage to score a lovely tin of McVities in the grocer across the street from the museum, so it was not all bad.

The next time I go, I firmly plan to stay at least overnight in Dublin before driving anywhere. The rellies will live. And now that I know where they live, and how to get there from here, I don't need Auntie M's assistance. However, I'll have to find different B&Bs to stay at. At least the one in Killashandra is, um, returnable. Dear Auntie M. (smacks self)

I also plan to fit in a side trip to Scotland, and perhaps a jaunt down to London. Mustn't overlook the city of bookstores.

But first we must travel to California and visit a different Auntie. It's been years since we were there, and that trip won't require any passports.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Dublin's not a bad place for a stay. In fact, I'm pretty surprised to hear that you got off the plane (from a cross-Atlantic, no less, I presume) and headed straight for Cavan. A lovely, oh, three-hour drive, was it? On top of a five, six-hour flight?

I sympathise. Driving cross-country's bad enough when you haven't just got off a plane.

(In an aside, the handful of times I've [been] driven across this country, I've encouraged the driver to diverge from the paths more travelled, adding at least an hour to our journey time. Yes, I had the map. No, it wasn't up-to-date)

You just have to love family, right? I mean, they're family. I think it's in the rules. :-)

Scotland... Mmmm. I was in Glasgow for a few days last summer. Worldcon. If I wasn't Irish to the bone, I swear I'd go and live there. Forever.

(They actually appear to have a sane form of city planning/rejuvenation. Also public transport and roads!)

But, alas, I love my grand wee country too much to ever leave it long.

California. A place of which I have heard in rumour. Should your planned visit take place soon, good luck with the family. :-)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Yes, we got off the plane, got in the car (post-breakfast) and drove. Well, I drove. I drove everywhere. I had volunteered, as I'd lived in the Caribbean and knew how to handle the other side of the road. It only took a few days for me to stop reaching for the gear shift with the right hand (smacked the door each time, which helped me remember faster).

The drive wasn't too bad, and I'd had coffee with breakfast just to make sure I was awake. By the time dinner rolled around, we were all quite tired and it was easy to go off to bed.

Yes. Family

The cousin-who-shall-never-be-seen-again was an idjit. I shall explain.

We had stopped by cousin Delia's house on the first night (where DJ fell asleep on the couch and she asked me if he'd like some tay). We then agreed to meet for dinner on another day. That appointed day arrived, I drove onto the apron and this time there was a large barking dog. Chained, with a long chain. Seeing with my trained eye, I thought to myself, "Self, there's something about that dog." So I says to Auntie not to go near the dog, go 'round the front of the car and keep the car between youse. She is no fool, and goes warily around the front. At the same time, Cousin Idjit, sitting right behind her, pops out the car and goes round the back. Before I could say anything, she's going towards the dog, who is also coming to her...and bites her. We all heard her say "Ow!". Very quickly and quietly she gets back in the car. Says nothing. Looks out the window.

Fortunately for her, it wasn't a big bite, as cousin Delia and her daughter are pulling out in their car and I've got to follow.

We laughed about that one for days, my partner and I. Really, now, if a known veterinary person says to you, "Don't go near that dog.", would you jump out the car and go greet said dog?

I didn't think so.

So. Scotland. I had a Scots friend when I was in high school, from the Glen Coe area. I learned a lot from him, including how never to call them Scotch. ;-)

Even though Scotland may have planning and rejuvenation, there's still something about Ireland that's captivating.

California is way different. If you ever get the chance to go there, you should. It's more exotic in some ways than the most exotic tropical isle. I should know. ;-)