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This is a traditional Irish song arranged by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Frankie Kennedy. It appears on the album Ceol Aduaidh (“Music from the North”), the first studio album by Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (who would go on to found the Irish band Altan), originally released in 1983 on the Gael-Linn Records label. See another version An Clár Bog Deal by Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill.
This fine song, with its intriguing and splendid melody, was widely sung in Munster in the early decades of the 19th century. The reference in O’Daly’s Poets and Poetry of Munster states that the original version of An Clár Bog Déil is better known as Caiseal Mumhan. It suggests further that the song was originally written by an Augustinian friar, the Reverend William English of Newcastle West, Co. Limerick who previous to his taking the Augustinian habit had produced many striking and beautiful songs in his native tongue.
Phósfainn thú gan bó Gan a' dhá phingin spré Leagfainn fúm thú maidin drúchta Le bánú 'n lae Mo dhá lámh dúnta gan mé gus tú A ghrá mo chléibh I gCaiseal Mumhan 's gan a leabaí fúinn Ach an chlár bog déil
Bean solastach ní mholfaidh mé 'S ní cháinfidh mé í Bean dorcha ní ghlacfaidh mé Go deo mar mhnaoi Cha ní ná an babaí shantach Ach mar gheall ar mhaoin Ach pósfaidh mé mo stórín 'Sí grá mo chroí
Ná síl cé gurb íseal Nó uasal mé Ná síl gur insan díog adaí A fuarthas mé Sín síos liom seal míosa 'Gus cuartaí ann mé 'S gheobhaidh tú scríofa in mo thaobh dheas Gur an buachaill mé
Tá líofacht labhairt Gaeilge Agus canúint mhaith chrua Scríobhfaidh mé 'na dhiaidh sin Le barr mo phinn Loch Éirne 'á shnámhfainn Ar chúl mo cheann 'S dá dtéadh agam bean a bhréagadh Bheadh an báire liom
Today without a cow Without tuppence dowry I would lay you beneath me on a dewy morning At the dawn of the day My two hands closed without me and you My darling love In Caiseal Mumhan with nothing for a bed But the deal board
A bright woman I'll not praise And I'll not find fault with I'll never take a dark woman As a wife
Because of wealth But I'll marry my darling She's the love of my heart
Don't think that I'm not noble Even though I'm lowly Don't think that in yonder ditch I was found Lie down beside me for a month or so And try me out And you'll find written in my right side That I'm a playboy
There fluency speak Irish And dialect like hard After that, I'll write With the tip of my pen I'd swim Loch Éirne On my back And if I could entice a woman I'd have won the day
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