Rachaidh mé thar farraige nuair a chaithfear ráithe an gheimridh
‘S triallfaidh mé ar Albain mar ar chaith mé tús mo shaoil,
Beidh ainnirín in éindí liom le dhul i mbun an tsaoil ann
Gheall sí fhéin go dtiocfadh sí ‘s go bhfanódh sí liom.

I will go over the sea when the winter season is spent
I will travel to Scotland as I spent the neginning of my life
There will be a young woman with me to go and attend to life there
She herself promised me she'd come and that she'd stay with me.

If the verb was in fact go bhfanóidh then substitute "that she will stay" instead but I think go bhfanódh sí "that she would stay" makes more sense.

As for Grá mo chroí mo chuilín, Sláinte geall mo chuilín, I think cuilín might be a variant spelling of cailín, and geall should be geal. In that case, it would translate as:

Grá mo chroí mo chailín, Sláinte geal mo chailín
"My girl is my sweetheart, my girl is (a figure of) bright health"

Await further input ...

_________________
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).

I think "sláinte geal" is a toast...a variant of plain old "sláinte." I know the line "sláinte geal mo mhuirnín" in "An Cruiscín Lán" is usually translated as something along the lines of "bright health to my love."

Redwolf

Yes, that makes sense

The lyrics you mention are here in Irish
http://www.aransinger.com/gramochroi.html

They seem to paraphrase 'An Crúiscín Lan' - an older song, mentioned previously by Redwolf on another site.
Cúilín appears to mean 'tresses of hair'. Do chúl/chúilín is in many poems means 'hair'.

Redwolf's comment -
Grá mo chroí, mo chrúiscín,
Sláinte geal mo mhuirnín
Grá mo chroí mo chrúiscín lán, lán, lán
Ó, grá mo chroí mo chrúiscín lán.

The title means "Full Little Jug."

Love of my heart, my little jug
Bright health to my darling
Love of my heart, my full, full, full little jug
O, love of my heart, my full little jug

He's singing about a jug filled with whiskey, or, more likely, poitín.

Click. (<= light coming on.) That makes a bit more sense.


Certainly prettier than "little fly" - that was my first thought.

_________________
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).

I guess hair would work with the whole Dubh nó bán thing, but, how would it make sense in the long run? "My hair is the love of my life!!!"??




That would definitely make it the weirdest, oddest, funniest song ever written!! How are everyone's song-writing skills? We may be onto a hit!!!

Can't cúl mean "back"? I found "cúilín" in a dictionary to refer to a sport called...Point? So I wasn't sure if it just meant he was obsessed with this sport!!
Can we just ask Lasairfhíona? I mean, hopefully she knows what she's singing! lol

And what are the different meanings that dubh agus bán can have?

And I just found this: cúilín, coolun, cooleen [Ir., hair or curl on the back of the head]. The custom in early Ireland of wearing the hair long and tied at the back of the neck has encouraged the use of Cúilín as an occasional poetic for Ireland; sometimes anglicized as Coolun, Cooleen, etc. This may be influenced by cúil-fhionn [fair-haired girl, attractive person, etc.]. There are several minor female figures named Cúilín, such as the daughter of Conarán in Fenian stories.

Sláinte is feminine so it would be sláinte gheal.




in standard Irish ad maybe in Munster and Connachta, "fan" is in the 1st conjugation ie. its conditional is "go bhfanfadh sí".
But in Ulster we conjugate it according to the 2nd conjugation (in the conditional & future) and say "go bhfanóchadh sí"...

_________________
Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

I'm going to blame every headache I get from now on on Dialects! I also translated it as "she would wait."