This song (very popular, judging by how often it has been recorded) was written by Dòmhnull Mac Ghille Mhoire (Donald Morrison), from Na Cóig Peighinnean, Ness. Apart from a couple of his songs and which village he belonged to I know nothing whatever about him, not even whether he was related to two other Morrisons (Murchadh Beag MacGhillemhoire, from Tàbost, Ness; Murchadh MacGhillemhoire, from Siadar, Barabhais) who were writing songs in Lewis at about the same time as him (first half of the 20th century). If anyone knows anything about him, please let me know by email .
A translation and some notes are provided below.
Tiugainn leamsa 's dèan cabhaig 's théid
sinn thairis a null
Dh' eilean uasal na Gàidhlig rinn ar n-àrach 'nar cloinn;
Tìr nan treun-fhear is calma choisinn ainm a measg Ghall,
'S théid sinn comhla a leannain thìr an rainich a null.
Nì sinn gluasad gu dàna suas na bràighean 's na caoil;
Gheibh sinn aiseag gu sàbhailt null gu àite mo ghaoil;
'S nuair a bhuaileas i 'm bàgh ann chluinn thu Gàidhlig gach
taobh
'S gheibh sinn aoigh agus fàilt 'n eilean bàigheil an fhraoich.
Chì thu muir, chì thu mòinteach, chi thu mhòine
mu'n cuairt,
Chì thu cnuic ghlas is leòidean air am b' eòlach sinn
uair;
Chì thu machraichean còmhnard 's tha gu leòr dhiubh[19]
air tuath
Ann an Nis, àite bòidheach, 's thogadh òg ann mi suas.
Nuair thig sèimheachd an t-samhraidh 's e 'n taobh thall àit
as bòidhch',
Bidh gach struthán le sunnd air 's aig gach alltán bidh ceòl;
Bidh gach neòinean is flùrán ri dùsgadh 'nan
glòir,
'S thig am feasgar 'gan crùnadh le ùr-dheal is ceò.
Chì thu Siùmpan tha aosmhor air aodann nan stuagh,
'S tric tha solus toirt saorsainn do na laoich tha air chuan;
'S iomadh bàt' bh' air a sgiùrsadh 's i gun chùrs
ri droch uair
Rinn an soills' ud a stiùireadh steach an cùiltean Loch-a-Tuath.
Chì thu iasgairean tùrail 's fheàrr air stiùireadh
's cur lìon,
Mach á cladach Phort-nan-Giùran, b' e sud cliù bh'
ac' a riamh;
Sud am baile rinn d' àrach 's fhuair thu gràdh ann is dìon,
'S chì thu 'n dachaidh a dh'fhàg thu mar a bha i bho chian.
'S nis aontaich thu rùin leam 's dèan co-dhunadh air ball,
Leig do shoraidh gun smuairean le dùthaich nan Gall,
Dol gu fearann ar sìnnsir bha cho strìtheil 'na cheann,
'S nì sinn tàmhachd 's an tìr sin gus an sìnear
sinn ann.
Come [1] along with me, make haste,
and we'll go across over there
To the proud Gaelic island where [2] we were raised as
children;
The land of the bravest [3] heroes who won a reputation
amongst foreigners,
And we'll go together, my darling, over to the land of bracken [4].
We'll go [5] boldly westwards [6] over
the hills and the straits;
We'll get a ferry safely over to the place I love;
And when it lands at the harbour [7] there you'll hear
Gaelic all round
And we'll get a welcome and a hospitable greeting [8]
in the friendly
heather island. [9]
You'll see sea, you'll see moorland, you'll see peat mosses round about,
You'll see green hills and slopes that we once knew well;
You'll see level coastal plains and plenty of them are under cultivation
In Ness, a beautiful place, where I was brought up when young.
When the mildness of summer comes the other side [10]
is a most beautiful place
Each streamlet is joyful and each little brook has its music
all the daisies and little flowers waken [11] into their
glory
and evening comes to crown [12] them with fresh dew
and mist.
You'll see skillful fishermen, the best at sailing and at casting nets,
Out from the shore at Port-nan-Giuran, that's what they were always famous
for;
That's the town where you were brought up, and you got love and protection
there,
And you'll see the home that you left, unchanged since long ago.
You'll see ancient Tiumpan [13] defying [14]
the waves,
Its light [15] often gives deliverance to brave seamen;
It's many a boat that had been driven off couse and had lost its way [16]
at a bad time
that that light guided into the security of Broad Bay [17].
Now agree with me, love, and make an end straight away,
Make your goodbyes, with no regrets, to the foreigners' land,
To go to the land of our ancestors who strived so ardently on its
behalf
And we'll stay in that country as long as we live [18].
1. Tiugainn isn't historically a verb,
but a personal preposition (delenited palatalised from of thugainn, towards
us); however, so far as current Gaelic is concerned it behaves just like
an indeclinable defective verb (1st person plural and 2nd person singular
& plural imperative); it has displaced rachamaid (1p pl. ipv of rach)
to some extent, but not completely. (I wonder if that's how irregular verbs
come to exist in a language: are we seeing a step in the evolution of thig
from irregular to even more irregular?)
2. literally: " the island which raised us",
but that's just poetic license, not a normal Gaelic idiom.
3. "is calma"; as usual the superlative has
to be buried in a relative clause; usually the relative copula is written
"as" instead of "is".
4. Places in the western isles are often known by some
descriptive phrase as an alternative to their name, usually only in poetry
and not in ordinary speech; tìr an rainich (the land of bracken)
is the northern half of Lewis; other examples include eilean a' cheò
(the isle of mist, = Skye), tìr a' mhurain (the land of maram grass,
= North Uist), tìr an eòrna (the land of barley, = Tiree),
and eilean fraoich (the isle of heather, = Harris and Lewis)
5. Nì sinn gluasad: literally we shall make a movement.
6. Suas: Westwards; usually suas means up (away from the
speaker) but "up the hills and the kyles" wouldn't make sense.
7. The most common meaning of buail is strike, but "bhuail
an aiseag am bagh" means "the ferry landed at the harbour"
rather than "the ferry crashed into the dock" which is what translating
it as "strike" here would suggest. Also "bagh" means
either harbour or bay according to context, here it's where the ferry touches
land so it's harbour.
8. aoigh: either a guest, or a stranger, or the welcome
given to one.
9. Isle of heather here means the whole Island (Harris
& Lewis) as opposed to N. Lewis (tìr an rainich)
10.the other side - - the other side of the water, ie
the island. Or perhaps it means the other side of the island, the Tolstas,
Stornaway, and the Eye instead of Ness.
11.ri dusgadh is Lewis Gaelic, standard Gaelic is a'
dusgadh; in standard gaelic the use of "ri" in the indicative
forms a sort of infinitive of intent, or an imperative: they are to wake,
rather than they wake.
12.I've taken 'gan as meaning gu + an rather than ag
+ an; if it's ag it means "comes crowning them" instead of "comes
to crown them".
13.Tiumpan rather than Siumpan in English presumably
comes from some phrase like "Solus an t-Siumpan" (Tiumpan Light)
where there's a T sound in the Gaelic.
14.literally "on the face of the waves"
15.this is the light at the NE end of the Eye peninsula,
not the Butt of Lewis light near Ness.
16."air a sgiursadh" = driven off course; "gun
curs" = without a course, ie lost.
17.Loch-a-Tuath (The North Loch) is called Broad Bay
in English; it's impossible to translate names like this unless you just
happen to know what the place is called, there's no point in learners trying
to remember name equivalences unless they intend to go to the places (and
then they'll need them; although a seaman will understand Broad Bay because
that's what's on the charts, a land-lubber may well use Loch-a-Tuath even
when speaking English.
18.literally: until we are stretched out in it.
19."dhiubh" is what Morrison wrote (and is the standard Gaelic word" but you may hear people singing "dhaibh" instead, because in some Lewis dialects they confuse the rest of us by saying "for them" when they mean "of them".