Tá ceist ag Pilip Ballach oraibh.

Cliceáil le méadú.

Cia bhail adtá dorus ifrinn.

Cén áit a bhfuil doras ifrinn?

Ag dul go hifreann i mbara láimhe?

An Ceantar:

“On what principle is it, that when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?”

- Thomas Babington Macauly

An tAlltar:

“All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.”

- Walt Whitman

an radharc is deireanaí #2

Cliceáil.

Bhí mé ag fanacht le lá geal leis na pictiúir seo a thógáil, ach níl ach scamaill is báisteach againn anseo le seachtain anuas. Is cosúil go bhfuil na bláthanna sásta leis an aimsir, murab ionann agus an chuid eile againn!

greann sa Quran

Níl a fhios agam an bhfuil aon scéal grinn sa Quran. Ní sé sin le rá nach bhfuil scéalta grinn - a lán acu - sa traidisiún Ioslamach. An eiseamláir is fearr de seo ná Nasruddin نصرالدین , an Súfaí. Is cosúil gur chuir Gabriel Rosenstock Gaeilge ar chuid de na scéalta seo. Seo ceann beag gearr a fuair mé ar an idirlíon:

“Cén aois thú, a Nasrudin?”

“Daichead.”

“An dá scór, ab ea? Sin an aois a luaigh tú liom dhá bhliain ó shin, a mhic ó!”

“Gan dabht! Seasaim le m'fhocal i gcónaí.”

Ceist agam ort: cad é an scéal is greannmhaire sa Bhíobla, dar leatsa?

arán is airgead beo

Seo “oideas” a bhreac duine eile síos ar leathanach bán ag deireadh leabhrán Philip Bhallaigh. Tá a pheannaireacht amscaí, ach tá a litriú réasúnta maith agus níl a chuid Gaeilge deacair a thuiscint. Tá nod amháin ann atá sách suimiúil. D'fhág mo dhuine an focal “bheith” ar lár sa dara líne. Nuair a thug sé an botún seo faoi deara chuir sé caret cosúil le " faoin mbearna agus scríobh sé an focal ag barr an leathanaigh mar seo: "b7" . Seasann an nod “7” do "agus” na Gaeilge agus do “et” na Laidine, mar sin is ionann “b7” agus “bet”, .i. “beith”.

Adirtear da madh maith

re duini arán do beith ag

éirghe do bhórd gurap

amlaidh is coir dhó puill

bhega do denam ann a thaoph

7 airgiod beó do cur inta 7

a ndunadh go maith 7 go

dtugann sin air an arán eir[-]

ge don bord.

Ach cad is ciall le “go dtugann sin ar an arán éirí den / don bhord”? An é an chaoi gur saghas asarlaíochta atá i gceist anseo? Ní luíonn sé sin le réasún.

Is féidir go bhfuil cuid den fhreagra ar fáil sa sliocht seo as an úrscéal Huckleberry Finn, an clasaiceach Meiriceánach le Mark Twain:

I was powerful lazy and comfortable -- didn't want to get up and cook breakfast. Well, I was dozing off again when I thinks I hears a deep sound of "boom!" away up the river. I rouses up, and rests on my elbow and listens; pretty soon I hears it again. I hopped up, and went and looked out at a hole in the leaves, and I see a bunch of smoke laying on the water a long ways up -- about abreast the ferry. And there was the ferryboat full of people floating along down. I knowed what was the matter now. "Boom!" I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's side. You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my carcass come to the top.

I was pretty hungry, but it warn't going to do for me to start a fire, because they might see the smoke. So I set there and watched the cannon-smoke and listened to the boom. The river was a mile wide there, and it always looks pretty on a summer morning -- so I was having a good enough time seeing them hunt for my remainders if I only had a bite to eat. Well, then I happened to think how they always put quicksilver in loaves of bread and float them off, because they always go right to the drownded carcass and stop there. So, says I, I'll keep a lookout, and if any of them's floating around after me I'll give them a show. I changed to the Illinois edge of the island to see what luck I could have, and I warn't disappointed. A big double loaf come along, and I most got it with a long stick, but my foot slipped and she floated out further. Of course I was where the current set in the closest to the shore -- I knowed enough for that. But by and by along comes another one, and this time I won. I took out the plug and shook out the little dab of quick- silver, and set my teeth in. It was "baker's bread" -- what the quality eat; none of your low-down corn-pone.

Besti Flokkurinn

Tá 320,000 duine ina gcónaí san Íoslainn, agus tá siad ar buile leis na polaiteoirí agus na baincéirí a bhí saibhir seascair i bpócaí a chéile, go dtí gur scrios siad geilleagar na tíre.

Is óstach raidió, ealaíontóir agus fuirseoir é Jon Gnarr. Chuir seisean agus a chuid cairde páirtí polaitíochta nua ar bun, Besti Flokkurinn, “An Páirtí is Fearr”. Beidh toghchán cathrach i Reykjavik amárach agus, iontas na n-iontas, is féidir go mbeidh méara nua acu: Jon Gnarr!

Seo agaibh an t-amhrán a rinne An Páirtí Is Fearr don fheachtas, le fotheidil. Is breá liom na gealltanais a dhéanann sé ag deireadh an fhíseáin. Bainigí sult as!

Cliceáil ar an scáileán le leithead iomlán an fhíseáin a fheiceáil!

Við erum best! ~ Is muidne is fearr!

dánfhocal ó Philip Ballach

Seo giota eile as leabhrán Philip Bhallaigh daoibh.

Ni thairic

an mhaith chaitter go goirid

agus an mhaith nach caitter

gen go gcaitter hí tairic.

Ní ídítear

an mhaith a chaitear go gairid;

agus an mhaith nach gcaitear,

cé nach gcaitear í, ídítear.

Agus seo leagan eile den rann ón leabhar Dánfhocail: Irish Epigrams in Verse, le Thomas F. O'Rahilly:

Is minic

an mhaith caithtear go dtairig;

agus an mhaith nach caithtear,

gion go caithtear í, tairig.

Tuigim an chéad leathrann i leagan Uí Rathaille gan dua. Níl mé chomh cinnte sin faoin gcéad leathrann a bhreac Pilip síos. Ach is fearr liom an comhardadh slán idir “gairid” agus “tairig” sa leagan sin. Rannaigecht chetharchubaid gairit recomarcach an t-ainm atá ar an méadar seo, dála an scéil. :-)

Níl an briathar “tairig”, a chiallaíonn “comes to an end; is completed, finished, exhausted” in úsáid anois, go bhfios dom, cé go bhfuil sé beo fós i nGaeilge na hAlban. Agus cé go bhfuil “gion” in FGB, is focal liteartha anois é.

Toisc gur luaigh mé Gaeilge na hAlban, seo agaibh leagan den dánfhocal sa teanga sin freisin:

Teirgidh gach nì ri 'chaitheamh

's a bhi ga chaitheamh gu minig;

's an nì sin nach caithear

ged nach caithear gun teirig.

Is fúibhse anois ciall a bhaint as.