Cuimhnigh siar agus tugaimis breith ar an scéal le chéile, déan do chuntas tú féin le go saortar thú ó chion. Iseáia 43:26


I have this bit of Irish out of An Bíobla and because English translations are readily available, I know what it says, but I can't see how one would get to the English from the Irish. For example:

Cuimhnigh siar agus tugaimis breith ar an scéal le chéile

Cuimhnigh -- is this the imperative, and is there an object? If so, what is it.

siar -- back? backward? westward? If it is westward, is this a metaphor for Irish ties to the old ways associated with the west of Ireland?

tugaimis breith ar an scéal -- This just throws me completely. Again, is tugaimis the imperative and part of the compound predicate cuimhnigh agus tugaimis?

And finally...déan do chuntas tú féin le go saortar thú ó chion.

Déan do chuntas -- settle your accounts?

le go saortar thú -- is this the conditional, and if so, what is the function of le?

(Message edited by pádraig on December 17, 2004)

Cuimhnigh siar - think back

déan do chuntas - I would translate this as "calculate your account" rather than settle. cuntas can be a verb.

le go saortar tú - in order that you may be freed

"le go" is in order that here.

tugamis - let us give (imperative)
breith ar an scéal- a judgement on the story/case

A Phádraig, a chara,

Siar, as you know, imples movement to the west. It also means back or backward, whose origin, I was told by Alexi Krondratiev, comes from the druids. The druids worshipped the sun. (Boy did they pick a wrong country!) Each morning they would face the sun rising in the east so that that their back was to the west. Thus, to the west got associated in Irish as to the back. Caith siar é ach ná lig aniar é.

I suppose that is also where ó dheas, to the south, originates. If you are facing east, the south is ar an taobh deas, on the right side.

A Lucas,

Go raibh maith agat. My daughter did a paper on Joyce's "The Dead" from the Dubliners in which she speculated that the references to the central character's traveling West as the story draws to a close are a symbolic acknowledgement of the pull that the rural West of Ireland (the old ways) has on this arrogant individual who would like to deny his heritage and embrace the sophistocated life of the city. Interesting theory, and it got her an A on the paper. At any rate, it goes to show that the language (any language) is full of subtleties that make translation as much an art as a science.

Meanwhile, a h-Aonghus, in looking over the "Authorized" English and the NIV, I note that the opening phrase (cuimhnigh siar) I cited has been translated to indicate something like, "Remind me," or "bring me to rememberance," spoken by the Deity. I know that the Irish does not say either of these, although the verses which precede this one contain a series of promises made by God, and one might infer that the imperative to recall (think back) might be a directive to re-call those promises to God's attention. Simply put: "remind me of my promises."

Would you agree that should this be the intention, then the Irish translation has omitted it? Obviously we are speculating here unless there's a Hebrew scholar out there to take us back to the original.

Relevant to this, does anyone know the time frames and sources for the Irish translation. I'd love to discover that an Irish translation predates the 1611 Authorized?

We just had a chance to see "The Dead" as done by "Burning Coal Theater" here in NC. The acting was superb! A very interesting play and your daughter's take on the "going west" theme is spot on, in my opinion.

Le meas,

James

BTW--vocative for Aonghus...A Aonghuis. It's a bit irregular (the vocative of the name...not "himself.")

Muise, I'm irregular enough myself, but not one of the irregulars you've spent you career dealing with, a James.

Maidir leis an Bíobla Naofa.
If you have An Bíobla Naofa, it is a modern translation under the editorship of Padraig Ó Fiannachta and was published in 1981. Some Gospels were available earlier.

A Bible translation was commisioned by William Bedell, a Anglican Bishop, in the 17th Century see e.g.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/irial.macginley/irishcambridge/iris6/bedell.html
and published in 1685.

Since the Reformation did not take root widely in Ireland, there was little demand for an Irish Bible. Also, Latin and Greek were taught in the hedgeschools.

(Message edited by aonghus on December 18, 2004)

(Message edited by aonghus on December 18, 2004)