Description
Is Fada Liom Uaim Í (She is too long away from me)
I learned this song from Caitlín Ní Ghallchóir (Uí Dhomhnaill) from Rann na Feirste, renowned singer of many trophies and accolades. Is Fada Liom Uaim Í, in its rather archaic rhetoric, seems to hark from a very early period of song-making, impossible to date now, but there are elements in it a very old type of love-song that has survived in Ireland in fragmentary form: that identified by Seán Ó Tuama as “An Cuireadh”(The Invitation). Although it is true that barely one example has come down to us in anything like complete form, many hundreds of themes, lines, phrases and imagery – which must be seen as part of the poetic language of an older culture – are found subtly interwoven into the whole fabric of Gaelic song. Nature or “Natural Magic” (Matthew Arnold) is the essence of this language. Here, almost every phenomenon of nature – in minute observation – is rapturously celebrated by poets whose personal experiences helped to fuse the love of nature and the nature of love into fleeting moments of unusual intensity.
I felt that the song’s long, meandering lines, however beautiful they might be, could be a bit taxing to listeners unfamiliar with sean-nós music. To balance this, I added a refrain that uses a musical fragment from another song and some self-penned words all of which I hope are in a similar mode to the traditional verses.
Is Fada Liom Uaim Í
Is fada liom uaim í ar uaigneas ‘ach baile ‘ mbíonn sí
Is le gach ógánach suairc a ghluaisfeadh in aice na dí.
Dá dtigfeá-sa ‘nuas ar cuairt fa bharr’ na gcraobh
Le goirm na gcuach go ngluaisfinn leat-sa mar mhnaoi.
‘S ach a Mhalaidh a chéad-searc, ná tréig thusa mé go bráthach
‘S go bhfuil mé indo dhiaidh achan lá fa mhullaigh na n-árd.
‘S tú cruithneacht ar mhnáibh Éireann, is tú b’fhéile d’ar ghlac ariamh lámh
‘S dar mhionna mo bhéil ní bréag a bhfuil mé is tú a rá.
curfá:
A ghrá is a rúin, dá ngluaisfeá liom
Go tír dheas na meala thar toinn
Tá an long faoi sheol in imeall a’ cheo
Is téimid thar sáile anonn.
‘S ag ‘a Mhalaidh mo róghrá, tá an t-ór-fholt snoite go féar,
Cum cailce ‘tá ró-dheas a chuirfeadh bród ar fhearaibh a’ tsaoil
Béilín meala mar na rósaí, súl mhómhar’ ghorm gan claon
‘S i gcoillidh ‘buain chnódhnn ‘sé mo bhrón gan Mallaidh ‘gus mé.
Curfá:
A ghrá is a rúin, dá ngluaisfeá liom
Go tír dheas na meala thar toinn
Tá an long faoi sheol in imeall a’ cheo
Is téimid thar sáile anonn.
She is too long away from me in the loneliest corner of each town she happens to be And with every agreeable young man who is allured by drink If you could come to visit (me) around the tree-tops at cuckoo’s call I would travel with you as my wife.
Oh Molly, my first love, do not desert me ever Because I am following you every day about the summits of the hills. You are the finest of the women of Ireland, the most generous that ever accepted a hand And I swear an oath that it’s a lie I do not tell you.
Chorus:
Oh, my love and treasure, if you would only come with me To the pleasant land of honey over the waves The ship is in full sail at the edge of the mist Let us sail over the seas younder.
And it’s Molly, my great love, who has braided golden locks down to the grass, A white, pleasant waist that would make the men of the world proud Little honeyed lips like roses, graceful blue eyes without blemish. In a wood picking nuts it’s my sorrow that Molly and I can’t be.
