Another 3 days, another painting……this one’s titled “Over the River” (which, as some of you will know, also happens to be the name of an old house/place in Hillsborough, NC). It came about after I’d had two very sincere, long-ish, and good talks with my father (who came from Tennessee to visit me over this past weekend) and my fine friend, Bob Niedbalski (who’s up in Connecticutt, visiting his 93 year old mother).
And, yes…obsessive as ever, I hit “replay” on this recording by Julie Fowlis (who’s originally from the Outer Hebrides Islands) about 100 times while finishing this piece. Turns out that this recording, like everything else these days, is on youtube.
“Google Translate” won’t help you much, by the way; the version I’m citing here is Scottish Gaelic, which is a different dog by several measures & leaps from Irish (which, unless Google’s become more-than-usually ambitious, is the only form of Gaelic that they acknowledge).
Super-smart&savvy folks (or maybe just older ones who can remember) will simply google the Paul Cartney lyrics, in English, to “Blackbird”):
Lonn dubh canadh ‘san oíche
Rug don sciathain bhrist’ is eirí thuas
Fhad do shlí
Tá tú ag feitheamh ag an aois seo a tosnú
Lonn dubh canadh i lár hoíche
Tóg an geall a bhí i do chuid shúil
Fhad do shaol
Tá tú ag feitheamh ag an uair go m’bheadh tú saor
Lon dubh ag eitilt
Isteach don solus dhubh na hoíche……