Geabairleog

John Tenniel's illustration to the poem Jabberwocky, first published in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871).
John Tenniel’s illustration to the poem Jabberwocky, first published in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871).

Geabairleog

Briollaic a bhí ann; bhí na tóibhí sleo
ag gírleáil ’s ag gimleáil ar an taof.
B’an-chuama go deo na borragóibh
is bhí na rádaí miseacha ag braíomh.

Fainic an Gheabairleog, a mhic!
na gialla géara, greim na gcrúb!
Fainic an Gumailéan is teith
ó Bhandarsnap na bhfriúch!

Thóg sé bórpalchlaíomh ’na ghlac
is lorg i bhfad an manann-namhaid.
Faoin gcniogaidchrann a dhein sé reast
is mhachnaigh seal san áit.

Is é ’na sheasamh faoi ufmhidheamhain,
bhuifleáil an Gheabairleog an treo,
trín tulach-choill—ba lasta a súil—
is í ag plobaireacht insa ród.

’Aon ’dó, ’aon ’dó, trí fhéith, trí fheoil
do ghearr a bhórpalchlaíomh slis! sleais!
Thit an beithíoch marbh; do thóg sé a cheann,
is go frábhógach rith sé ar ais.

Ar mharaigh tú mar sin an Gheabairleog?
Gabh i leith chúm anall a mhic mo bhéibh!
Nach fraoibiúil an lá! Hurú! Hurá!
a dúirt sé le scliogar a scléip.

Briollaic a bhí ann; bhí na tóibhí sleo
ag gírleáil ’s ag gimleáil ar an taof.
B’an-chuama go deo na borragóibh
is bhí na rádaí miseacha ag braíomh.

— translated by Nicholas Williams.

Curator: Christian Clay Columba Campbell

Christian Clay Columba Campbell is a Roman Catholic of the Anglican Use. As Senior Warden of the Cathedral of the Incarnation (Orlando, FL), he organised the process by which the parish accepted the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, petitioning to join the Catholic Church. The Anglican Cathedral is now the Church of the Incarnation in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Personal queries should be directed to me at eccentricbliss dot com.

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