Ní bhiann gort gan diasach fiadh...

Ní bhiann gort gan diasach fiadh…

(not * is habitually * field * without * ears of grain * wild)

There’s never a field of grain without some wild oats.

This is the first line of a quatrain, in the hand of Manus O’Davoren in a 16th century manuscript, reproduced in volume one of O’Grady’s catalogue of MSS in the British Museum (now British Library):

Ní bhiann gort gan diasach fiadh.
Ag sin acaibh ciall ma rainn.
Is terc duine dhá mbiann maith
ná biann meth ar chuit dá chlainn.

There is never a field without wild oats.
There you have the sense of my verse.
Rare is the man who has gained wealth
without one child that goes to the worse.

Topics: Verse Maxims & Wise Counsel