Amhrán na Bealtaine

It's May 1! Aside from being May Day, my penultimate day of classes in my undergraduate career, and the birthday of one of my friends from elementary school, today is also Beltane. I thought I would post my favorite traditional Beltane song for you here:

Bábóg na Bealtaine maighdean a'tsamhraidh
Suas gach cnoc is síos gach gleann
Cailíní maiseacha bángheala gléigeal
Thugamar féin an samhradh linn.

Curfá:
Samhradh buí ó luí na gréine
Thugamar féin an samhradh linn
Ó bhaile go baile 's 'na bhaile 'na dhiadh sin
Thugamar féin an samhradh linn.

Tá nead ag an ghiorria ar imeall na haille
Is nead ag an chorr éisc i ngéagaibh an chrainn
Tá 'n chuach 's na héanlaith a'seinm le pléisiúr
Thugamar féin an samhradh linn.

(Curfá)

Tá an fhuiseog a'seinm 's a' luascadh sna spéartha
Beacha is cuileoga is bláth ar na crainn
Tá mil ar na cuiseoga 's coilm a béiceadh
Thugamar féin an samhradh linn.

(Curfá)

We used to sing with an alternate chorus:

Samhradh buí na nóiníní gléigeal
Thugamar féin an samhradh linn
Ó bhaile go baile 's ár mbaile 'na dhiadh sin
Thugamar féin an samhradh linn.

There are a few particularly interesting things about this song. It shows some dialectal features--most notably the synthetic 1pl past tense, thugamar ('we brought'),--and I like how the "ó bhaile go baile 's ár mbaile 'na dhiadh sin" ('from town to town and our home after that') part shows all the mutations in a row, plus two different meanings of baile. This word shows up in the Irish name for Dublin, which is Baile Átha Cliath 'Town by the Hurdle Ford,' and is behind all the Irish town names with 'bally.'

There are at least two melodies for this text. One is happy and one is more melancholy (I think the latter is much prettier). Were I not such a crappy singer, I would post MP3s. But if anyone is really interested, I have the sheet music of the happy version and could probably work out the other one.