The Ballad of Father O’Hart

Good Father John O’Hart
In penal days rode out
To a shoneen who had free lands
And his own snipe and trout.

In trust took he John’s lands;
Sleiveens were all his race;
And he gave them as dowers to his daughters,
And they married beyond their place.

But Father John went up,
And Father John went down;
And he wore small holes in his shoes,
And he wore large holes in his gown.

All loved him, only the shoneen,
Whom the devils have by the hair,
From the wives, and the cats, and the children,
To the birds in the white of the air.

The birds, for he opened their cages
As he went up and down;
And he said with a smile, ‘Have peace now’;
And he went his way with a frown.

But if when anyone died
Came keeners hoarser than rooks,
He bade them give over their keening;
For he was a man of books.

And these were the works of John,
When, weeping score by score,
People came into Coloony;
For he’d died at ninety-four.

There was no human keening;
The birds from Knocknarea
And the world round Knocknashee
Came keening in that day.

The young birds and old birds
Came flying, heavy and sad;
Keening in from Tiraragh,
Keening from Ballinafad;

Keening from Inishmurray,
Nor stayed for bite or sup;
This way were all reproved
Who dig old customs up.

欧哈特神父谣曲

善良的神父约翰·欧哈特
在惩治日骑马出门去
找一个暴发户，他田多地广，
还有鹬鸟和鳟鱼。

他受托接管了约翰的土地；
吝啬鬼都是他同类；
他把土地给女儿作嫁妆，
她们都攀上高门第。

可是约翰神父走到西，
约翰神父走到东；
他的鞋子磨出了小洞，
长袍磨出了大洞。

从主妇、猫儿和孩子到空中的
鸟儿，全都喜欢他，
惟有那个暴发户除外——
魔鬼揪住了他头发。

鸟儿喜欢他，因为他到处
打开它们的囚笼；
他笑笑说：“现在太平啦”；
又皱着眉头上路程。

可要是谁家死了人，来哭丧的
嗓门嘶哑赛乌鸦，
他是一个读书人，所以
总劝他们别哭啦。

这些都是约翰的善行；
忽一日，人们哭啼啼，
成群结队来到科隆尼；
因他终年九十四。

并不曾有人来哭丧；只有
科垴克纳瑞的群鸟
和科垴克纳希周围的万物
在那一天前来哭吊。

飞行而来的幼鸟和老鸟
翅膀沉重心悲伤；
从提拉拉赫前来哭吊，
从巴里纳法来哭丧；

从因尼士穆瑞前来哭祭，
并不停留吃又喝；
所有发掘旧风俗的人
就这样受到了谴责。

傅浩　译

此诗最初发表于《爱尔兰吟唱诗集》（1888）。叶芝原注说：“此谣曲是根据科隆尼现任牧师在其极有趣的《巴里索代尔和凯尔瓦奈特的历史》中所述关于上个世纪科隆尼的某位教士‘欧哈特神父’的故事改写的”（《校刊本》，页98）。

惩治日：1695—1727年间，英政府对爱尔兰实施“惩治法”，禁止天主教徒拥有地产。天主教徒纷纷将土地的名义所有权委托给诚实可靠的新教徒。

来哭丧的：指职业哭丧者，他们受雇为死者唱颂歌。叶芝原注：“约翰神父的一些言论传了下来。有一回他正为兄弟之死大放悲声，人们对他说：‘你禁止我们哭丧，却为什么为你兄弟这么悲伤？’‘天性，’他回答说，‘强迫我，而你们强迫天性。’他的名声和影响留传下来，事实上在科隆尼至今不再有人哭丧。”（《校刊本》，页797）

科隆尼：位于斯来沟镇南数英里的凯尔瓦奈特乡的一个村子。

科垴克纳瑞：盖尔语，义为“王者之丘”，斯来沟郡一山名。

科垴克纳希：斯来沟郡一圆形山丘。

提拉拉赫：斯来沟郡一男爵领地。

巴里纳法：斯来沟郡一乡村。

因尼士穆瑞：斯来沟郡沿海一岛屿。

叶芝诗集（增订本） 2018 ——

In separate notes to the 1888 printing of the poem, Yeats explained that 'Coloony is a few miles south of the town of Sligo. Father O'Hart lived there in the last century, and was greatly beloved. These lines accurately record the tradition. No one who has held the stolen land has prospered. It has changed owners many times' (VP p. 93); and that

Father O'Rorke is the priest of the parishes of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet, and it is from his learnedly and faithfully and sympathetically written history of these parishes that I have taken the story of Father John, who had been priest of these parishes, dying in the year 1739. Coloony is a village in Kilvarnet.

Some sayings of Father John's have come down. Once when he was sor- rowing greatly for the death of his brother, the people said to him, 'Why do you sorrow so for your brother when you forbid us to keen?' 'Nature,' he answered, 'forces me, but ye force nature.' His memory and influence survives, in the fact that to the present day there has been no keening in Coloony.

He was a friend of the celebrated poet and musician, Carolan. (VP p. 797)

Yeats refers to chapter IV, section 2 ('Right Rev. John Hart') of T. O'Rorke, History, Antiquities, and Present State of the Parishes of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet, in the County of Sligo (Dublin: James Duffy, 1878). Carolan lived from 1670 to 1738. In a revised version of this note published in 1892, Yeats further commented that 'The robbery of the lands of Father O'Hart was one of those incidents which occurred sometimes, though but rarely, during the time of the penal laws. Catholics, who were forbidden to own landed property, evaded the law by giving some honest Protestant nominal possession of their estates. There are instances on record in which poor men were nominal owners of unnumbered acres' (VP p. 798). The penal laws against Roman Catholics were enacted from 1695 to 1727.

Shoneen: Yeats glossed 'shoneen' as 'upstart' and explained that 'Shoneen is the diminutive of shone (Ir. Séan). There are two Irish names for John one is Shone, the other is Shawn (Ir. Seághan). Shone is the "grandest" of the two, and is applied to the gentry. Hence Shoneen means "a little gentry John," and is applied to upstarts and "big" farmers, who ape the rank of gentlemen' (1888; VP pp. 92, 797). Yeats's information is not quite accurate. 'Shawn' is Seán (French Jean; Seághan is archaic, French Jehan), a common Irish name. No Irishman is ever called Seón, which is English 'John,' and means John Bull. A Seóinín is one who apes Englishmen, not gentlemen.

Sleiveen: Yeats glossed 'sleiveen' as 'mean fellow' and explained that 'Sleiveen, not to be found in the dictionaries, is a comical Irish word (at least in Connaught) for a rogue. It probably comes from sliabh, a mountain, meaning primarily a mountaineer, and in a secondary sense, on the prin- ciple that mountaineers are worse than anybody else, a rogue. I am indebted to Mr. Douglas Hyde for these details [here and at 14.3], as for many others' (1888; VP pp. 92, 797-98). Douglas Hyde (1860-1949), a close friend of Yeats, was a Gaelic scholar and a folklorist. Neverthe- less, 'sleiveen' in fact does occur in dictionaries. It is Irish slíbbín, 'a sly person, a schemer,' and derives from slí, 'a way, a course of action,' not from sliabh, 'a mountain.'

Keeners: the reference is to professional keeners, hired to cry aloud and recite extempore verses in praise of the deceased.

Colloney: a village in County Sligo.

Knocknarea: a mountain in County Sligo.

Knocknashee: a round hill near Achrony, County Sligo.

Tireragh: a barony in County Sligo.

Ballinafad: a village in County Sligo.

Inishmurray: an island off the coast of County Sligo.

The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats, Volume I—