Jimmy, Mo Mhíle Stór (Jimmy, A Thousand Times my Treasure) Irish Ballad at New York Irish Center

This is my own, new translation of a long beloved ballad, Jimmy Mo Mhíle Stór. 💔😌🎶 I’m so happy to be at a stage with my Irish that I feel like I can analyze other translations and attempt my own. As with translations of anything, some of the ones of this song fall short in my opinion, some generalize or convert beautiful Irish constructs into English. And as is most common with Irish songs, some translations try to make them more palatable and even RHYME in English, and all raw emotion and original meaning of the text is lost. So I tried to translate this faithfully and literally, while also of course funneling it a bit through my interpretation. For example, “mo mhíle stór” is a term of endearment that you might see translated simply as “my darling” or “my treasure” etc., but imagine calling someone what’s literally there: A thousand times my darling? My thousand treasures? That’s the size of the feeling, and quantifying it with a number is something so unique to Irish. I’m also obsessed with Irish words that have double meanings. ‘Rún’ can be a term of endearment like “mo rún = my love’ but is also the word for ‘secret’. The word “taitneamh” (TÆ-nyuv) is used for a variety of things in Irish like “enjoyment” or “pleasure”, but what taitneamh literally means is “shine”. So what you’re saying when you enjoy something is to say something SHINES for you. Which I think is just about as close as language ever gets to perfectly capturing something uncapturable. This is where we get the English expression “to take a shine to” someone or something. I think it’s beautiful to keep all the possible meanings in mind for this song. That this young gal will always shine for Jimmy, or that the memory of their time together shines for her still. One last thing: every translation says she’ll spend the REST of her life alone in the woods grieving him, but it looks to me like she’s just saying, “the next part of my life”. Maith an cailín.😌🤍🎶
#irish #irishlanguage #gaeilge #irishtrad #irishtraditionalmusic #ballad #irishsinger #gaeltacht #nyc

[@PaytonSamuels33]

Beautiful ❤️❤️❤️

[@curtisbrown3847]

Such an amazing voice Madelyn 😮💚😊 beautifully done 🎉

[@-RONNIE]

You always make me so happy listening to Irish music. Keep up the great work 🥃 Sláinte 🇮🇪

[@TheRhonda1957]

Beautiful!❤

[@user-iv3gd2lu9i]

Voce melodiosa per una lingua tra le più belle del mondo... Musicale e armonioosa...