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by Antoine Ó Raifteirí (1784 - 1835)
Translation by James Stephens (1882 - 1950)

The County Mayo
Language: English  after the Irish (Gaelic) 
Now with the coming in of the spring
  the days will stretch a bit,
And after the Feast of Brigid I shall
  hoist my flag and go,
For since the thought got into my
  head I can neither stand nor sit
Until I find myself in the middle of
  the County of Mayo.

In Claremorris I would stop a night
  and sleep with decent men,
And then go on to Balla just beyond
  and drink galore,
And next to Kiltimagh for a visit of
  about a month, and then
I would only be a couple of miles
  away from Ballymore.

I say and swear my heart lifts up like
  the lifting of a tide,
Rising up like the rising wind till fog
  or mist must go,
When I remember Carra and Gallen
  close beside,
And the Gap of the Two Bushes, and
  the wide plains of Mayo.

To Killaden then, to the place where
  everything grows that is best,
There are raspberries there and strawberries there
  and all that is good for men;
And if I were only there in the middle
  of my folk my heart could rest,
For age itself would leave me there
  and I'd be young again.

Text Authorship:

  • by James Stephens (1882 - 1950), "The County Mayo", appears in Reincarnations, first published 1918 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Irish (Gaelic) by Antoine Ó Raifteirí (1784 - 1835) [text unavailable]
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "The County Mayo", 1918, published 1921 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Joan Trimble (1915 - 2005), "The County Mayo", 1949 [ baritone and 2 pianos ], from The County Mayo, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-01-16
Line count: 32
Word count: 201

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