“WISHA, where is he goin’ to now
    With the hat on the back of the poll.
And the hair of him curled on the brow,
    Like a millionaire out for a stroll?”
“Ar’, Old Man, but he’s yardin’ the cow.”
                    “Moryah!¹
    With the hat on the back of his poll?”

“There’s the red heifer’s calf in the lane,
    And the gray mare is mad for a bite,
And the dog up above on the chain
    Is shoutin’ and bawlin’ all night.”
“Sure, Old Man, you’re keownrawnin’ again.”
                    “Moryah!
    And that Jim gallivantin’ the night?”

“Yer’, Old Man, but the head of him’s young,
    And the chubby gossoon with the dart
Have the wits of him straightened and strung
    To the tune of the song in the heart,
With the lilt of it there on the tongue.”
                    “Moryah—
    And bad luck from the song in the heart!”

“’Tis that Casty girl now have him caught,
    And her mother out baking the bread;
It is there she should be, so she ought,
    With the eyes dancing jigs in her head;
Faith, when I was a boy, sure we thought…”
                    “Moryah!
’Twas yourself had an eye in the head.”

“Don’t I mind the old days that are through,
    When a boy and a colleen afar
Felt the bound and the hurt of it too
    As they swung in a dream on a star—
Thiggim-thu,² my Old Man, thiggim-thu?”
                    “Ouisha,
    Poor old woman, ’tis dreamin’ you are.”

1.    Moryah is the Celtic equivalent of “I don’t think!””    [back]

2.    “Don’t you understand?”    [back]