Annabeth wrote:
Julie Fowlis finally posted the lyrics and it made my whole life! I thought I'd share the full lyrics here
Lon-dubh a' seinn ann an dubhar na h-oidhche
tog do sgiathan brist' is èirigh suas
fad do rè, bha thu a' feitheamh airson an tìd' gu togail rithe.
Lon-dubh a' seinn ann an dubhar na h-oidhche,
tog an sgàil bho d' shùil is seall gu geur
fad do rè, bha thu a' feitheamh airson an tioc a bhios tu saor.
Lon-dubh sgèith, lon-dubh sgèith,
Steach dhan t-sòlas dubh na h-oidhche
.
An jab, a Annabeth! I've been watching for that to happen and missed it. Those lyrics explain the bits I was missing (including somme grammar issues), and there are some changes in meaning, especially in the middle line of the second verse.
I think the word
dubhar is more like "shade" than the
dubh ("black") that I had, although I'm no expert, so maybe it can be used to mean "dark" also. Can't believe that I missed hearing
rè, but the meaning is essentially the same as
saoghal in the context. I didn't realize that one could use the adjective
sgèith to mean the same thing as
air a sgiath, but now I've found it in one of my Gaelic dictionaries (
sgèith is more like what I was hearing, but I just couldn't make sense of it before). I haven't been able to find the word
tioc, but the meaning is pretty clear in context. The word
bhios is a variant spelling of the
bhitheas that I had, and the
steach in the last line is a shortened version of the usual
a-steach (poetic license, I guess). Anyway, this is how I understand the lyrics now:
Blackbird singing in the [shade/dark] of night,
lift your broken wings and arise.
All your life,
you were only waiting for the time to ascend.
Blackbird singing in the [shade/dark] of night,
lift the mask from your eyes and look sharp.
All your life,
you were waiting for the moment that you’d be free.
Blackbird on the wing,
blackbird on the wing,
into the dark light of the night!