Translation help

[gerrynobody]

A chairde,
Any chance someone could help translate this sentence? I am at a stage with Irish that I understand all the words in a sentence but sometimes in fairly difficult academic texts the sense is somehow lost on me.

Lena chois sin shamhlófaí gur mhó a rachadh aiste cantaireachta dhiamhair sheanaimsireach i bhfeidhm ar an té a bhí le haoradh ná amhrán a mbeadh ceol de chuid an phobail leis.

I think I have the first part:
‘In addition it may be imagined that the mysterious old-fashioned way of singing would greatly influence whoever…’
the last part of the sentence though I can’t make sense of.
‘…was using satire on songs, which would become the music of the public..’ or something like that.
Míle buíochas roimh ré

[Héilics Órbhuí]

“In addition one could imagine that a mysterious old-fashioned way of singing would (have) more likely influence the satirist than a song of popular music” is what I would say. Obviously I changed the syntax of some of it – “an té a bhí le haoradh” is, as you say, more like “he who was satirizing”. And “a song that has music of the public” seems to suggest to me simply “popular music”. That’s my take on it anyways.

[Onuvanja]

Perhaps “aiste cantaireachta” simply means “a piece of singing” (cf “aiste cheoil” = “a piece of music”)? And couldn’t “an té an bhí le haoradh” mean “the person who was to be satirised”? I could be wrong, but my reading would be:
“In addition one could imagine that a mysterious old-fashioned chant would have had a greater influence on the person being satirised than a song composed on a popular tune”.

[Héilics Órbhuí]

And couldn’t “an té an bhí le haoradh” mean “the person who was to be satirised”?

Grammatically that seems to make more sense, but in context, it seems weird to me. Why would someone being satirized be influenced one way or the other by the choice of music? 😉

[Labhrás]

And couldn’t “an té an bhí le haoradh” mean “the person who was to be satirised”?

Grammatically that seems to make more sense, but in context, it seems weird to me. Why would someone being satirized be influenced one way or the other by the choice of music? 😉

Some satires make more impression on the audience than others (bearing in mind that the person to be satirized is the intended audience)
Rhyme and music does play a role, of course.

[Héilics Órbhuí]

That’s true. It’s hard to tell without knowing the larger context of the sentence, I suppose.

[Onuvanja]

A Gerry, a chara, is thusa an t-aon duine a bhfuil an téacs ar fad léite aige. Cén chiall a bhaineanns tú as?

[gerrynobody]

Tá an píosa seo as alt é dar teideal ‘Aortha: Ainmhithe agus Eile: (The Irish Satirist’s Power over Animals – and Others) de chuid Seosamh Watson, l.90. Tá nasc anseo: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30070816.
From the context of the article, which is about poets and the changes that took place in the traditional poetic genres in the 17th century, I would definitely say “way of singing” is correct, and “the person doing the satirising” as well, given that he is already discussing the methods of the poets.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh as bhur gcabhair 🙂

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