Between 1985 and 1995, I lived with my family on An Blascaod Mór, the Great Blasket Island, off Corca Dhuibhne, the Dingle Peninsula. We were very fortunate to meet and become friends some of the surviving Islanders still living on the mainland at that time. One of them, Seán Pheats Team Ó Cearna, visited with us often. It was he who warned us that the sun would disappear behind the high hill, which sheltered the village, for the winter months. "Ach," a dúirt sé, "tiocfaidh an ghrian thar nais ar Lá 'le Bhríde!": "The sun will come back on St.Brigid's day!" Appropriately, St.Brigid's Day is the 1st of February, traditionally viewed as the first day of Spring. First is the original version, as Gaeilge, in Irish. A live reading of a version of this poem can be heard by clicking here.
Lá ‘le Bhríde
Dhúisigh an ghrian sinn
an mhaidin úd,
solas órga
ag stealladh
‘is ag scairdeach
isteach ar an urlár,
ag slaparnach
thuas na fallaí,
ag sruthlaíonn
an doras síor-oscailte isteach.
Níor thuigeamar
ar dtús
cad a bhí ag titim amach.
Níor aithníomar
torann buí na Gréine.
Ach chuimhníos
go tobann ar na bhfocail a dúraís,
mar draoi:
“Tiocfaidh an Ghrian thar nais ar Lá ‘le Bhríde.”
Agus d’árdaigh dóchas,
ársa, pagánaigh im’ chroí,
inár suí sa leaba,
Bríd nó Danú,
an lámh in uachtar ag an tEarrach,
bhí an Geimhreadh, gruama caite.
“Tiocfaidh an Ghrian thar nais ar Lá ‘le Bhríde.”
******************
St.Brigids Day
The sun awoke us.
Like a fanfare
or a burst of wild laughter.
Playfully.
Unfamiliar.
Spilling in along the floor.
Splashing up the walls.
Streaming in through the always-open door.
We didn’t - at first- know what was happening,
Didn’t recognise the bright clamour of the sun.
Then we remembered the words
That you, druidlike, had spoken:
“The Sun will come back on St.Brigid’s Day.”
And a welling of Hope,
Pagan and Pure,
Came rising inside us,
Sitting in bed,
Brigid or Danú,
The Winter defeated:
“The Sun will come back on St.Brigid’s Day.”
