Topic: Smaointe

[nichi]

The ancestors....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqpZITYexNQ

http://www.rhapsody.com/enya/shepherdmoons/smaointe/lyrics.html



Smaointe...
Irish Gaelic

A Thought...
 
(D'Aodh Agus Do Mháire Uí Dhúgain)

Éist le mo chroí,
Go brónach a choích'
Tá mé caillte gan tú
's do bhean chéile.
An grá mór i do shaoil
Treoraí sé mé.
Bígí liomsa i gcónaí
Lá 's oích'.

Curfá:
Ag caoineadh ar an uaigneas mór
Na deora, go brónach
'Na gcodladh ins an uaigh ghlas chiúin
Faoi shuaimhneas, go domhain.

Aoibhneas a bhí
Ach d'imigh sin
Sé lean tú
Do fhear chéile.
An grá mór i do shaoil
Treoraí sé mé.
Bígí liomsa i gcónaí
Lá 's oích'.

Curfá

Smaointe, ar an lá
'Raibh sibh ar mo thaobh
Ag inse scéil
Ar an dóigh a bhí
Is cuimhin liom an lá
Gan ghá 's gan ghruaim
Bígí liomsa i gcónaí
Lá 's oích'.

(To my maternal grandparents,
literally: "For Hugh and Mary Duggan")

Listen to my heart,
Forever sad
I'm lost without you
and your wife.
The great love in your lives [1]
Will guide me.
Be (plural) with me always
Day and night.

Chorus:
Weeping due to the great loneliness
The tears, sorrowfully
Asleep in the quiet green grave
In a deep peace.

There was blissfulness
But that is gone
You followed
Your husband.
The great love in your lives
Will guide me.
Be (plural) with me always
Day and night.

Chorus

A thought, on the day
You were (both) at my side
Telling tales
Of how things were.
I remember the day
Carefree and happy [2]
Be (plural) with me always
Day and night.
 

[1.] The meaning of this phrase in this context is "the love that was shown by the two of you".
[2.]Literally "without need and without gloom".

[nichi]

I hope someone can download this. I can't, as of yet.
It's haunting and worthwhile, though, if you can...

http://www.rhapsody.com/enya/adaywithoutrain/deoraarmochroi/lyrics.html

http://swingerlove.imeem.com/music/76nfp7T4/deora_ar_mo_chroi/


Deora Ar Mo Chroí (tears on my heart)
Eithne Ní Bhraonáin (Enya)

A phonetic pronunciation: "Jor-a air maw cree".


How beautiful the day and night;
the earth is singing in the wind,
the voices rise and touch the sky
telling all the earth's believing,
and in the night sighs fall down,
and from the skies sighs fall down on me.

And when I move away from view
my voice is singing in the wind,
it rises up to touch the sky
telling all that I believe in,
and from the night earth shall sing,
and from the night earth shall sing,
and from the night earth shall sing again.

Ba dheas an lá go oíche
Na glórtha binne i mo thaobh
'S aoibhneas i gach áit gan gruaim
Áthas ar mo chroí go deo
He-a-ro
He-a-o-ro

Ma shiúlaim ó na laetha beo
An ghrian 's an ghealach ar mo chúl
Nil uaim ach smaointe ó mo shaoil
Deora ar mo chroí go brón
He-a-ro
He-a-ro
He-a-o-ro

[nichi]

I want to qualify ... that I just hate it when I like someone everyone else does. It makes me think I've lost all sense. Enya became extremely popular, ultra-produced by synthesizer,  and overplayed on the radio and in the new age milieus ... I came to associate her with a sort of numbness ...  The 2 above songs are beautiful, however.

I loved Clannad, the group from she hailed. I loved their efforts to bring in the gaelic tongue and the celtic roots. And they were recording before the interest in things-celtic nearly became a "cliche"in the us.

There were 3 groups I listened to a lot in the late 80's/early 90's, and I'm sure they would still hold up in my ear, had I not worn my cassettes down to teeny fibers:

Clannad
DeDanaan
Nightnoise

There were other excellent groups too, following the tradition of the Chieftains, sometimes in a fusion-mode with the modern.

I think perhaps "Riverdance" was the thing responsible for popularizing all of this. (I loved Riverdance too ... the spirit of one of my late and cherished cats floated away on one of the songs from Riverdance... If I can possibly find it, I'll share it.)

[nichi]

Speaking of Riverdance
(the finale)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrP9anxy0pY&feature=related

I haven't found the song I mentioned above, but this is just cool.
Regimented, shockingly-precise ...
Just try to overlook Michael Flatley's ego if you can...


The youtube site isn't offering my favorites from that show. I like the ones with the dancers from the russian ballet, and the big circle dance.
Also, the orchestra does a song without dancers .. that's the one my cat's spirit floated away on... But they aren't in the listings.

This one's nice...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXEl1pEOoec&feature=related

[Michael]

Riverdance - I saw a doco on how this guy, Michael Flatley, split under unpleasant circumstances from the original Irish dance group - he went on to do River Dance. I got the impression he was a real poser extrovert, who couldn't fit in with the others, but when you see what he did on his own, I guess there are always two sides to any story.

I have an Irish friend (actually a Sociology Professor) who does a great dance - but you know - all that hands-to-the-side stuff, it's just not my thing.

[nichi]

The hands-to-the-side thing is a curiosity to me. Luckily all their dances aren't that constrictive... I have a hard time understanding the relevance of it. Could be like bondage, I don't know.

M Flatley was one of the primary choreographers for Riverdance, but he fell out with them too, and opened his own, "Lord of the Dance". Twas borderline-kinky. Or polymorphously perverse. Or ... it had just too much darned testosterone for my liking.

[Michael]

Yes that was it - he started with river dance then went to Lord of the Dance

I mean he's a good dancer - you can't deny that.

the hands thing was because of religion - dance was evil, so if you just move the feet, it's the least evil.

(I want to say more about this!)

[nichi]

I mean he's a good dancer - you can't deny that.

No doubt! And he does not do the hands to the sides in any of his solos... of which there are a preponderance. That's the one thing about Riverdance I don't like --- the preponderance of solos.

That group gets to moving some energy ... it's very cool ... and then they scatter for a very (unconnected) solo by the male lead. It's too bad.

On that youtube page, there is another selection which I almost posted, called "Reel Around the Sun"... you get to see some of the movement there (though there are even better numbers from that show that aren't posted), but darn it, in comes the male lead doing a solo, and it's just disjoint and unconnected to the rest. It's great dancing, don't get me wrong, but I like to see the whirling, spinning stuff the group gets pushing.

the hands thing was because of religion - dance was evil, so if you just move the feet, it's the least evil.

(I want to say more about this!)

I want to hear it!

[tommy2]

goooooooood stuff.  Can't stop watching, feeling these groups in action, I swear.
Splendid energy portrayed.  Some I've seen in close ups show such wonderful  radiance.  Ha.  Love it.  Thanks again.

tommy

[nichi]

Hey, glad, T!
One day, when I grow up, heheh, I'll catch the show live -- I've only seen documentaries and airings of the original version on PBS.

I've got it! We'll wait for Riverdance to come to Sydney, all meet up there, and then go swarm Michael's paddock a few miles up!

[nichi]

SOLAS in Concert

(Click on "Listen" and up comes the NPR Media Player ... nice clarity!)
Nothin' like some irish music to pick up the spirits.

[xero]

I have heard ....and it has an appealing, homely ring of authenticity ...that the hands by the side dancing of the Irish came from long winter nights with their large extended families and friends regular cramming into some poor sod's small (but toasty) kitchen. The folk so gathering in each others stone croft would be moved to start kicking up their heels but...simply couldn't find enough room to swing their arms. The practice was then extended into the formal and recognisable form.
Basically, so the theory goes...It was the only way for lots of people to 'dance' and not knock everyone over in very limited space.

Interesting as that might be...one has to ask why it didn't develop in other areas. Now mind you, the Scottish were presumably faced with a similar predicament of cold winters and small kitchens so perhaps their solution may well have been to developed the high held arms (above the gathered throng) and the fixed hand(s) on hips solution.

Its an interesting subject for some dance major's thesis.

[nichi]

Personally, I think it's a bondage-image... like "bundling".

[nichi]

Harry's Game by Clannad
Harry's Game by Clannad

[nichi]

Ce Leis by Maire Brennan (of Clannad)