Camburn25, did you say this was sent to you as a letter? It's a poem actually, and the first line is the poet's name. Seems that it was written by one 'Donnchadh Ruadh Ó Murchadha' although I can't be certain (and the name doesn't ring an immediate bell either.)

I can transcribe a fair bit of the rest (the last three stanzas are reasonably clear, bar the odd letter) but not enough to translate sensibly yet. The language is a killer, I've had to get all my old dictionaries out and spread them all over the table. It's marvellous.

If you can possibly give us a better scan to work with, or a photograph....

I'm impressed that you can even get the poet's name from that! Good luck with it.

Thanks Guys!!! Anything you can do. The copy I recieved was not great. I'll rescan. What I can do is despeckle it and switch the negativity. As I told Brendan this is the first page copied so that it overlaps. I'll send the next page with the despeckling. The context of the letter if that helps is that it is from an older priest to a younger priest (Fallon) who is leaving the religous order--Jesuit I think.

You're correct. It is a poem. Sorry. Wow. Great reading.

That makes some sense given the content (and would also explain why I've never heard of the poet.)

Please don't despeckle it! Some of those 'speckles' are part of the text and it would be a real hindrance to lose them. I doubt that switching the negativity (I assume this would just interchange white and black in the resulting image) would be helpful either. See if you can change the resolution on your scanner instead.

The 'cct' in the upper right corner (fortunately not obscured) was the giveaway. It's a Latin abbreviation: cct = cecinit = do chan

Would it not be possible to make a full-colour scan, or at least a real greyscale scan?

If you have access to a photocopier that can scan to your network, you should be able to get a much, much clearer picture from that. Or even just taking a picture of the letter with a digital camera, that would work, too.

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Not a native speaker.

Always wait for at least three people to agree on a translation, especially if it’s for something permanent.

My translations are usually GU (Ulster Irish), unless CO (Standard Orthography) is requested.

Seo dhaoibh na cinn nua (Here are the new ones for you):

http://irishlearner.awyr.com/membrfaylz ... e_54-1.jpg

http://irishlearner.awyr.com/membrfaylz ... e_54-2.jpg

As before there's a bit of overlap between the two scans.

The scans are much more detailed this time so I'll link them rather than displaying them here.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Bhreandáin!

Camburn, those scans are miles better than the first ones. Thanks very much. I hate to insist but is there any chance you could redo the first page this way as well? It would really help.

Meanwhile I'll get on to transcribing (and translating) the second page... I'll post back here when I've got anything fit to post.

C.

Camburn, the top one-third of each page is by far the hardest to read. Could you scan just those top bits again, placing them lower down on the glass? Say the first five or six lines of each page.

I don't have a full translation for you yet (would really appreciate those other scans) but it's true, this is addressed to a (presumably younger) priest named Ó Faoláin who left the priesthood because of a woman. The poet doesn't stint on acknowledging the lady's attractions either: her lips are like live coals, her cool bright breasts fairer than lime etc. etc. Of course, beauty is fleeting and both the young priest and the lady will soon enough be in the grave: cue awful warnings about eternal torment and 'hordes of ravenous beetles'. Cheerful bedtime reading, isn't it? I'm enjoying myself no end though.