Irish - Explain me this!

nipps

ok, so basically i'm doing higher irish but am finding it extremely difficult. my teacher is one of those who just talks irish and never english. as you know we are on our break at the moment, and i want to make decent B or better standard notes (which i never did last year:mad:). i have done so with the filiocht ainmnithe (eg. gealt?, etc) because they are easy and i understand exactly whats going on in them.

but for most of the pros ainmnithe (an bhean og, etc) and the danta dualgais bhreise (an chead drama, etc) i can only understand bits and pieces throughout the text and i dont have a clear overall understanding of them.

so all i'm really asking for is a explanation in english, about what exactly goes on in each of these stories and poems.

any help is much appreciated! thanks!

dambarude

What book do you have? The book I had, Fiúntas, gave an version of the poem in simpler Irish on the page following the original version.

irish_man

yea i had the same problem last year.
i can't understand why they don't just write the english beside the poem.
if your irish teacher is any good they should translate it for you if you ask them.

Nikki_Jane

Hi,
I hate them stories too, they're so difficult! My mother helped me understand ''An Bhean Og''. Its basically about a young woman with two young children. Her husband is away on business. She does the same thing every day such as bringing her children to to beach and makes them jam sandwiches. She wears a long dress with no shape to it, it just hangs on her. She is a loving mother and tries to mind her kids. You also get the feel she is gentle to the children like the time where they're in the water at the beach and she holds her son in her arms and jus dips him in the water. She's clever because she speaks both english and irish and her husband makes her write intelligent letters to him when he's away on work. She doesn't talk to anybody in the area, just smiles and saluts them. On this particular day, her husband is coming home from work so she has to go home and make a dinner with red meat because that's what he requested and also that the kids have to be in bed and that the house has to be really clean. He also doesnt like her wearing makeup so she has to take off all the makeup. You see that the husband is very controlling and she isnt happy. That's basically the story! We havnt the other story done yet. Hope this helps you out!