Anthony O'Daly

On St. Patrick's Day I thought I would share this piece with you. The music is from Reincarnations by Samuel Barber sung by the Taipei Chamber Singers. It is a setting of the following poem:

Anthony O'Daly

Anthony!
Since your limbs were laid out
the stars do not shine!
The fish leap not out
in the waves!
On our meadows the dew
does not fall in the morn,
for O Daly is dead!
Not a flow'r can be born!
Not a word can be said!
Not a tree have a leaf!
On our meadows the dew
does not fall in the morn,
for O Daly is dead!
Anthony!
After you
there is nothing to do!
There is nothing but grief!

by James Stephens (1882-1950)
from Reincarnations, published 1918

Stephens, in turn wrote the poem as a "reincarnation" of the lament in Irish by my several times great grandfather, Anthony (Blind) Raftery (Antoine Ó Raifteiri also Antoine Ó Reachtabhra, 1784-1835). The original was written for Anthony O'Daly, a young Irishman hanged by the British as a rebel in 1820. Raftery is supposed to have witnessed the hanging.

Raftery was never published in his lifetime but the poems were stored in memory and in the Gaelic Renaissance were collected and published. Douglas Hyde, later president of Ireland, published Abhráin Atá Leagtha Ar an Reachtúire, Or, Songs Ascribed to Raftery in 1903. The book which is in both Irish and English has been made available on the Internet by Google Books. The Irish version of the poem, Anthony O'Daly, is on page 128 for those who might be interested.

Irish is identified by UNESCO as a language in peril of being lost, with only 44,000 native speakers. If it were to be lost, its heritage of thousands of years of poetry and literature would be seriously diminished. I would not that the Asian chorus, singing Anthony O'Daly, posted originally by Kuang-Chien Chen from Taiwan, is of a setting by an American composer. The intangible heritage, originally in the Irish language, has global importance.

John Anthony Daly