Bíonn grásta Dé idir an diallait agus an talamh.

Bíonn grásta Dé idir an diallait agus an talamh.

The grace of God is found between the saddle and the ground.

Note: This week’s proverb is a positive way of saying that God hates a coward. His grace is available to those with the courage to jump on a horse and risk falling off. “Great deeds are usually wrought at great risk.” Herodotus.

Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do something every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.
William James,The Sentiment of Rationality (1882)

Níor dhún Dia doras riamh nár oscail Sé ceann eile.

Níor dhún Dia doras riamh nár oscail Sé ceann eile.

God never closed one door without opening another.

Note: There is a Spanish version of this week’s proverb, “Dios que da la llaga, da la medicina.” (God who gives the wound, gives the cure.) Neither the Spanish nor the Irish version expresses a Calvinist notion of predetermination. God may open another door, or offer the cure, but one does not have to go through the door, or accept the cure. The notion of free will is preserved in both proverbs.

Note also: Both verbs in this week’s seanfhocal are in the past tense. We took some poetic license translating the second verb into the English gerund form, ‘opening.’ A more literal translation would be “God never closed a door, He did not open another one.”

Irish has a widely used verb form comparable to the gerund called the progressive form of the verb. It is formed by putting the preposition ‘ag’ before the verbal noun form with the verb to be. So the negative past progressive form is ‘ní raibh Sé ag oscailt’ (He was not opening), while the negative present progressive form is ‘níl Sé ag oscailt’ (He is not opening), and the negative future progressive form is ‘ní bheidh Sé ag oscailt’ (He will not be opening). Each is used to express an ephemeral action, one that is in progress.

Is giorra cabhair Dé ná an doras.

Is giorra cabhair Dé ná an doras.

The help of God is closer than the door.

Note: This week’s seanfhocal is a reminder of the nearness of God and his mercy. He is the loving father, always ready to help his children, if only they would but ask Him. In cotrast is the stern English proverb, “God helps those who help themselves.”

Many have helped themselves to its authorship. Benjamin Franklin published this adage in 1735 in Poor Richard’s Almanac. In 1689, Algernon Sidney published it in his Discourses on Government. George Herbert wrote “Help thyself, and God will help thee.” (Jacula Prudentum 1651) Perhaps, each borrowed the idea from Aesop’s Hercules and the Wagoner, written around 550 B.C. He may have borrowed the idea from Aeschylus who wrote, “God loves to help him who strives to help himself.” Euripides wrote, “Try first thyself, and after call in God; For to the worker God himself lends aid.” Sophocles wrote “Heaven helps not the men who will not act.” While this proverb was lifted from one pen to another in the Greco-Roman-English tradition, the Celtic tradition passed this week’s seanfhocal from one voice to another without any concern about authorship.

Note also: The native speaker this week talks at a coversational pace. So you hear in this proverb how Irish words get fused together in normal discourse. Here the words ‘ná’ and ‘an’ get fused together in speech as if they were spelled ‘nán.’ The rule concerns consecutive words where the first ends in a vowel and the second begins with a vowel. If either of them is the neutral vowel, represented above as an upside-down ‘e’, then that vowel is ‘swallowed up’ in pronunciation. In this case, the article ‘an’ begins with a neutral vowel, so it is not heard.

Is trom an t-ualach an t-aineaolas.

Is trom an t-ualach an t-aineaolas.

Ignorance is a heavy burden.

Note: Compare this to the popular English proverb, “Ignorance is bliss.”

To each his suff’rings: are all men,
Condemn’d alike to groan,
The tender of another’s pain,
Th’ unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more: where ignorance is bliss,
‘Tis folly to be wise.

This was from Thomas Grey’s poem, “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” 1742. This sentiment had been expressed in the Old Testament, “Óir, dá mhéad í ár n-eagna is ea is mó ár gcrá agus dá leithne é ár n-eolas is ea is géire ár bpianpháis. Cóheilt 1,18. (For in much widom there is much sorrow, and he who stores up knowledge stores up grief. Ecclesiastes 1,18)

However true this may be, consider another English proverb, “Knowledge is power.” Again, this second proverb comes from the Old Testament, “Is fearr an críonna ná an tréan, fear na gaoise ná fear [an ghaisce].” Seanfhocail 24,5. (A wise man is more powerful than a strong man, and a man of knowledge than a man of might. Proverbs 24,5.)

We at Daltaí na Gaeilge subscribe to the latter proverb. Knowledge of your language gives you power. It gives you an identity, a pride in a rich heritage. We would encourage you to explore your heritage, your culture, your roots. Dip into the oldest literary tradition in Europe. Enroll at an Irish language course in your area. Sign up for an Irish immersion weekend.

Do not burden yourself with ignorance of an Ghaeilge any longer. Bí linn anois. (Join us now.)

Ní heolas go haontíos.

Ní heolas go haontíos.

You must live with a person to know a person.

Note: Literal translation — ‘No knowledge until cohabitation.’ Ancient Roman citizens learned this wisdom from conscription into the Roman legions. “Homini ne fidas, nisi cum quo modium salis absumperis.” (Do not trust a man unless it is one with whom you have consumed a measure of salt.) The measure of salt is a reference to the preserved meat a soldier would consume in the field. Over a long campaign, one learned whom one could trust in the intimacy of close quarters. Living together over long periods of time naturally reveals one’s true character. Ask anyone who has been married for a while.

Note also: You might expect this proverb to be written, ‘Ní haithne go haontíos.’ This is because the Irish idiom for ‘I don’t know someone’ is ‘Ní aithne agam ar duine éigin.’ But the word ‘aithne’ literally means ‘acquaintaince.’ So ‘knowing’ in this sense is possession of superficial information about a person, like a person’s name and occupation. A deeper ‘knowing’ is conveyed by the word ‘eolas.’ Tá aithne agus eolas agam air. (I know and understand him.) There is a third type of ‘knowing’ in Irish. ‘Tá a fhios agam.’ Ach sin scéal eile.