Hey, all,
Anyone out there know what the English translation of the title of the song “Cul Tiubh Na bPearlai” is? Or if there’s an extant set of English lyrics? Daithi Sproule sings it on the James Kelly/Paddy O’Brien album “Traditional Music of Ireland”.
Regards,
Jamey.
It seems to mean “the dense back of the pearls”, but I can’t even begin to guess what that might mean. Are you sure it’s copied down accurately?
I’m checking with Daithi directly on this and will post the translation here if/when he replies.
Here’s Daithi’s response:
That title literally translates as “The Thick Head of Pearls” – which
doesn’t sound too romantic in English but is beautiful in Irish – it would
refer to a woman with thick blond hair. I got the song from a book called
“Dhá Chéad de Cheoltaibh Uladh” and I’ve never heard anyone else sing it – I
chose only a couple of verses to sing – the others weren’t very interesting.
Awesome. Thanks, Mr. Hurley - and my thanks to Mr. Sproule as well.
JH.
Maybe he doesn’t get sufficient recognition, but Daithí Sproule was the fourth member of Skara Brae, a truly seminal group in the 1970s renaissance of Irish traditional music. The other members were the Ó Domhnaill siblings, Tríona, Mairéad and Mícheál - admittedly not quite up to Corr standards of glam, but on an altogether higher plane in terms of musicality.
Daithi’s really a brilliant singer and guitarist. He plays with Altan when they come to the States, so he’s pretty well known on this side of the pond. He has a gorgeous solo CD on Green Linnet called “Heart Made of Glass,” and has been touring quite a bit lately with the great fiddler and guitarist Randal Bays.
I met Daithi when came to our session a few months ago. He seems like a wonderful modest man (I do wish our regular guitarist could have pulled back a bit… :roll: ). He sang a song in Irish and it was just stunning. No comparision to recordings, really, even without reverb. Gorgeous.
This looked unusual (to yours truly), so I asked a native speaker about it, and she confirmed my first suspicion; she had never heard that particular phrase, so obviously, it seems to be some sort of real “poetic license.” The phrase, “Cúl tiubh” is common enough; it refers to a thick head of hair on a person – male or female, that makes no difference. “Péarlaí” (pearls) – besides its literal meaning – can refer to anything of great value, or high esteem. Thus, by extension (and very logically), the Irish love song, “The Snowy-breasted Pearl” is “Péarla an Bhrollaigh Bháin,” in Irish. And many an Irish mother will call her own sweet child, “Phéarlacháin,” meaning “Little Pearl.”
Do you think you could you get Daithí to give us a verse or two of the song itself, in Irish, so I can read the phrase in context of the entire sentence? That might be an illuminating exercise, for both (or several) of us …
Thanks,
“Ná gcathaigí bhur bpéarlaí faoi na mucaí (Do not cast your pearls before swine),”
Ár dteanga bheo (our living language),
brian_k
I’d rather not bug Daithi about this…I think the best approach would be to get the album (which is worth getting anyway, tons of fantastic music) and listen to the song.