Deireadh na Feide: English Translation (Leaving Cert Irish): Revision Notes
Deireadh na Feide: English Translation
Deireadh na Feide
Inniu féin
is cuimhin le muintir Aas
go mbíodh teanga
á feadaíl
ag na haoirí
fadó
fead a ghabh
bealach fuaime an ghleanna
idir féarach is sráidbhaile
fead a d'iompair
nuacht an lae
idir aoirí
agus na mná a d'oibrigh
sna goirt máguaird,
feadaíl nach dtuigtí
lasmuigh den bparóiste.
Nuair a tháinig na Naitsithe
choimeád an feadaíl
Giúdaigh slán ó chontúirt,
chuir scéalta an Résistance
ó bhéal go béal faoi rún,
chabhraigh le píolótaí 'bhí imithe amú
teorainn na Spáinne a aimsiú.
Níor chualathas ó shin í.
Maireann sí i gcuimhne na ndaoine,
an teanga feadaíola seo,
ach níl ar chumas éinne
na fuaimeanna a aithris.
Níor deineadh aon taifead.
End of the Whistle (Last Blast)
Even today
the people of Aas remember
that a language
used to be whistled
by the shepherds
long ago
a whistle that travelled
the sound-path of the valley
between pasture and village
a whistle that carried
the news of the day
between shepherds
and the women who worked
in the nearby fields,
a whistling not understood
outside the parish.
When the Nazis came
the whistling kept
Jews safe from danger,
passed stories of the Resistance
from mouth to mouth in secret,
helped lost pilots
find the Spanish border.
It hasn't been heard since.
It lives in the people's memory,
this whistled language,
but no one is able
to reproduce the sounds.
No recording was ever made.