From the recording Celtic Lamentations, Healing for Twelve Months And A Day….
This Scottish lament, sung in Scots Gaelic, is a variation of the Romeo and Juliet theme. It is from the Blair Atholl region and dates from about 1571. The narrator is a young woman whose beloved, the chieftain of the MacGregor clan, has been brutally murdered by her own clan. It is sung as a lullaby, very much like those often sung by a mother to her child in Gaelic - deceptively calming. She's letting the child know (even though the child is too young to understand) of her grief and the fact that the child's father has been killed by his own mother's clan. In a larger view, the song is about the ways in which parents pass along their own losses to their children, in matters both large and small.
Lyrics
‘S iomadh oidhche fhliúch is thioram,
síde nan seachd sian,
gheibheadh Griogal dhomh-sa creagan
rís an gabhainn díon.
Cúrfa
Óbhanó òbhan óbhan íri, óbhan íri ó
Óbhanó òbhan óbhan íri
‘s mór mo mhulad ‘s mór.
Nuair ‘bhios mnathan óg a’ bhaile
‘nochd ‘nan cadal séimh,
‘s ann bhios mis’ aig bruaich do lice
‘bualadh mo dhá láimh.
B’ annsa bhith le Griogal cridhe
Tearnadh chruidh le gleann
Ná le barán mór ná Dalach
Síoda geal mu ‘m cheann
~
GRIOGAL CRIDH' (PHONICS)
Shimmy goy-cha liuch is hir-im shead-jah nan seachd sian
Gwho-wa Gri-gal gow-sa craicainn rís an gow-n jean
Chorus:
Obhan, obhan, obhan, iri, obhan iri o
Obahn, obhan, obhan, iri, 's mor mo mhula s' more!
Derr-ich me un-chowm-rah mhulla(ich), 's theraim mean tie - lathair
'S cha d'fhuir mish-ah grigal cree-hah - naw hooey- mu'n chlar