Quotations: Woe
 

Am trú-sa trá!

(I am * a doomed man - emphatic * indeed)

I'm doomed for sure!

So says Cú Chulainn in "Serglige Con Culainn" when he misses his second shot with a sling stone at a pair of magical birds who are flying in tandem, linked by a chain of gold. His failure to hit them shocks him because, as he goes on to explain, "Ó gabus-sa gaisced níro lá iomroll mo urchur cuss indíu." ("Since I took up arms my aim has never failed until today.")

At-chíu forderg, at-chíu ruad.

(I see * crimson * I see * ruddy)

I see crimson, I see red.

Queen Medb asks the prophet-woman Feidelm to look into the future as her army sets out to do battle with Ulster in the epic "Táin Bó Cúailgne", and this is what she replies.

Céin mair molthiar, mairg áerthiar.
(long * live * (who) is praised * woe * (who) is satirized)

Happy the one who is praised, woe to the one who is mocked.

This maxim stands as a verse in a poem in LU, in the commentary on "Amrae Choluim Cille". It refers to the two powers that the Early Irish poet wielded, with which he could make or break a man: praise and satire.

Dirsan lemm!

(calamitous * with me)

Woe is me!

Congal exclaims "Dursan leam!" to express his utter embarassment after having been gravely wounded not by a famous warrior but by the halfwit Cúanna in "Cath Muighe Rath" (FDG, p. 286). Variations on "Dirsan duit" (It's your misfortune!) are found throughout Early Irish literature.

Fé amae!
(alas * indeed)

Woe is me!

A formulaic expression, spoken by Cú Chulainn in "Serglige Con Culainn", and by others elsewhere. The druid Ollgáeth in "Tochmarc Ferbe" exclaims "All amae" when he sees a bad omen.

Fir gontair, mná bertair, baí aegtair!

(men * are slain * women * are abducted * cattle * are driven)

Men are killed, women are carried off, cattle are driven away!

This is the dire warning that Súaltaim repeated again and again to the Ulstermen at the behest of his son, Cú Chulainn, when he was unable to resist the invading army, in the LL version of "Táin Bó Cúailnge".

Fó mo ruach!
Comrac fri mnaí mo druad:
sech romfácaib mo bhean féin,
bean mo druad ní romaithgéin.

(good * my * mire /
[sexual] encounter * with * wife * of my * druid /
besides * (that) has left me * my * wife * own /
wife * of my * druid * not * has recognized me)

Mine is a fine mess!
A tryst with my druid's wife:
not only has my own wife left me,
my druid's wife ignores me.

This lone stanza is embedded in a compilation of lore surrounding the idiot saint Mac Dá Cherda and St. Cummaine of Foda, edited and translated by J. G. O'Keeffe in Ériu, volume 5. Alan Harrison in "The Irish Trickster" explains that Mac Dá Cherda lost his sanity as a result of this episode, after the aggrieved druid cursed him.

Is bethu i mmudu ocus is trebad i mmaig!

(is * a life * in * vain * and * is * husbandry * in * field)

It's a life gone to waste and a livelihood lost...!

So exclaims Culann, the smith, after his valuable hound has been killed by the young Sétanta in self defense. The boy volunteers to take over the guard duties of the hound until a pup can be reared to replace him, and thus he acquires the name by which he will become famous: Cú Chulainn, "the Hound of Culann".

Is mór in bét!

(great * the * calamity)

What a pity!

This exclamation, used as a cheville in a short poem found in "Sanas Cormaic", is still alive virtually unchanged 1,100 years later in Scottish Gaelic as "Is mór am beud". See also the quatrain that begins "Mór in bét!" in this collection.

Is mucc remi·tuit mess.

(is * a pig * that falls before * acorn crop)

He is a pig that dies before the acorns fall.

In other words, "he has died a prematue death." In early Ireland pigs were expected to feast and grow fat on mast (fallen nuts of forest trees, mostly hazel nuts and acorns) in early autumn. A pig that does not survive until the mast fall dies before its time. This line comes from the tale "Togail Bruidne Da Derga", where Fer Rogain speaks it of the doomed king, Conaire.

The expression is also found in the Annals of the Four Masters (M1155.6) in regard to the death of Maol Seachlainn, and is reinforced by another similar expression:

As muc rémhi-téth mes, 'as craobh riana bláth' écc ind fhir h-isin. (... 'and a branch before its blossoming' the death of that man).