#Celtic Proverbs

[tmarshconnors]

50 Irish Proverbs.

"A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything."

"May your troubles be less and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door."

"A friend's eye is a good mirror."

"May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live."

"The older the fiddle, the sweeter the tune."

"It's easy to halve the potato where there's love."

"A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea."

"When the cat is away, the mice will play."

"God made time, but man made haste."

"A light heart lives long."

"A change of work is as good as a rest."

"Wisdom is the comb given to a man after he has lost his hair."

"A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest."

"You’ll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind."

"Continual cheerfulness is a sign of wisdom."

"Time is a great storyteller."

"It is better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life."

"Put silk on a goat, and it’s still a goat."

"If you want an audience, start a fight."

"Experience is the comb that life gives a bald man."

"A little fire that warms is better than a big fire that burns."

"Beauty doesn’t boil the kettle."

"A man who holds good cards would never say if they were dealt wrong."

"It’s no use carrying an umbrella if your shoes are leaking."

"A silent mouth is sweet to hear."

"If you lie down with dogs, you’ll rise with fleas."

"Many a ship is lost within sight of the harbour."

"The man with the boots does not mind where he places his foot."

"Two people shorten the road."

"The longest road out is the shortest road home."

"Don’t be breaking your shin on a stool that’s not in your way."

"It is often that a person’s mouth broke his nose."

"There is no luck except where there is discipline."

"Nature breaks through the eyes of the cat."

"The well-fed does not understand the lean."

"Better fifty enemies outside the house than one within."

"The mills of God grind slowly but they grind finely."

"If you do not sow in the spring, you will not reap in the autumn."

"Patience and perseverance overcome the greatest difficulties."

"Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth."

"A little bit of bread with peace is better than a feast with strife."

"A lie has no legs."

"It is not a secret if it is known by three people."

"Beware of the anger of a patient man."

"Every man is sociable until a cow invades his garden."

"There’s no need to fear the wind if your haystacks are tied down."

"Bricks and mortar make a house, but the laughter of children makes a home."

"A wren in the hand is better than a crane to be caught."

"You must take the little potato with the big potato."

"The world would not make a racehorse of a donkey."

[sierrawitch]

A’chungaidh leighis is goirte, ‘Si is moth’ tha deaneamh feum.

(The medicine that hurts most is usually the one that’s needed most.)

T.D. MacDonald

[misneachsblr]

Leagan Béarla thíos/ English version below

"Is maol gualainn gan bhráthair" - ceann de na seanfhocail Gaelacha is fearr liom. Is dócha gur dheineann sé tagairt do "mhúrtha sciatha", eagar catha ina throid gaiscígh taobh le taobh. Throid gach fear le ga ina lámh dheis. Chosain gach éinne taobh deis a chomharsan leis an sciath a bhí ina lámh chlé. Mar sin, eagar fíor-dhaingean a bhí ann. Dá mbriseadh an "múr" seo, áfach, bheadh easpa cosanta dóibh siúd a bhí in aice leis an mbearna! Tá an tagairt is sine do fhoirm den seanfhocal seo le feiceáil i "mBuile Shuibhne", téacs ó ré na Meán-Gaelainne. Sa téacs seo, deirtear gur "toll taobh ó bheith gan bhráthair!"

Tá nasc de saghas éigean idir an seanfhocal seo agus an ainmfhocal "comhghuaillí"! Tá tagann an focal seo ó "comh" + "gualainn" + an iarmhír "-aí/-í" (nó an uimhir iolra de). Ciallaíonn sé gurb é "comhghuaillí" an gaiscíoch a sheas le taobh dhuine i gcath!

"Is maol gualainn gan bhráthair" ("bare is the shoulder without a brother) is one of my favourite Irish language proverbs. It seems to make reference to "shield walls", a battle formation in which warriors fought side by side. Every man fought with a spear in his right hand. Everyone protected their neighbour's right side with a shield in their left hand. As such, it was a very solid formation. If this wall were broken, however, there would be a lack of protection for those who were next to the gap. The oldest reference to a form of this saying is found in "Buile Shuibhne", a Middle Irish text. In this text, the form given is "toll taobh gan bhráthair" - "a pierced side from being without a brother".

There is a sort of connection between this saying and the noun "comhghuaillí" ("ally" or "comrade"). Comhghuaillí is made up of "comh" ("co-", "with", "as" or "like" depending on context), here acting as a prefix. "-Guaillí" could the plural of "gualainn" (shoulder) with the suffix "-aí/í" (one who, a doer of something); this is the interpretation I prefer! Or it could simply be gualainn's plural. Put together, the term for "comrade" thus means someone who stands by one's shoulder in battle!

[rodpower78]

See much, study much, suffer much, that is the path to wisdom.

Celtic Proverb

[irishmeadows]

Irish Christmas Prayer

[ashleysingermfablog]

Wk 00, 2nd of November, 2024

I picked up the vinyl from Make Shop on Kroad.

Catalogue inspiration that I am gathering for formatting and adjusting my catalogue. I like the idea of having a smaller booklet with some poem inside the larger catalogue with works, so they can be read together. I am currently collating some poems that I have done from across the year and focusing on ones that include Celtic languages (some Welsh proverbs and some Gaelic phrases) and some sentimental/earnest sentiments in English, as well as including the small spiral work I did using text.

I am making two small booklets to slot into my catalogue, one that examines my own garden and clootie tree/outdoor arrangement I did in it.

and a collection of a couple poems and translations.

these are the pictures that document the sculptural installation in my garden taken on 35mm film. I did the outdoor arrangement using a common medium for me when working outdoors: found garden pebbles. The shape I made is the symbol of two joining spirals, that reference energy connecting, perhaps references a connecting of two places- my mahi in Aotearoa and the indigenous knowledge from Wales Cymru.

Attached is a video of me tying my wishing site clootie tree at the courtyard for the final exhibition:

ashley singer, 2024, installation video: clootie tying

[rkcdlitt]

Gifts

We may never know what gifts we have. We can only look within and meditate on what we think we know as an act on the gift of love that flows from our heart. What flows from our heart, may very well be the gift that God wants us to develop into our lifelong passion to hone into whatever spiritual perfection we can nourish with our simple human brains. Who knows, greatness may come. But even if it remains mundane, I know it is my mundane and I am proud that it came from me.

One thing I know is that God gave me one gift that outshines every other gift that I think I have. That gift is the gift of words. I can talk forever, and sometimes I can make sense of what I say. I love to write, and sometimes I make sense with what I write. Those times I make sense are the times that I know that God is looking over my shoulder. Those are the times I know that beauty is something that will last. It reminds me of the old Irish (or is it Celtic) proverb, “The world will pass away, but love and music will last forever.”

If God’s mission for me is to write something worthwhile, I will write until He lets me know it is good enough for me to send to a publisher (or at least Amazon) to put it into book form and let others read what God has chosen for me to say. I won’t care if it is good, great, or whatever. I sent it out because God told me to.

Perhaps whatever I write will lift someone out of their blue funk and allow them to make something of themselves. Perhaps something I write will allow someone to rise from their sickbed to earn enough to feed their family. Or, perhaps what my writing will do is encourage a little girl to pick up a pencil and scribble some words on a scrap of paper and become another Maya Angelou or Amanda Gorman. Perhaps, perhaps.

Only God knows what gifts can do.

© Russell Kendall Carter, B.A., M.A.T., D.Lit.

[ryanhamiltonwalsh]

"To get a deity to focus on you,you must behave unpredictably."

— Celtic pagan proverb 

[theflybitteneye]

"Not the sum father" made me piss myself, lol. Hell yeah. All father bless, may your spear and wisdom strike true even with only one eye, friend.

For those curious, I am a non-theistic practicing Heathan. By "non-theist" I mean I don't believe the gods exist in literal, physical space but also that I don't think it matters. "The soul" is the narrative the mind tells itself about itself and theology is the narrative the mind tells itself to rationalize the world, something even non-theists do whether they realize it or not often. It's kind of just how the mind works, and I personally opt for being mindful of that to keep your perspective in check. Not to get on my high horse, but you know, bias is unavoidable. Being a "tips-fadora lol God not real" Atheist scorned by being brought up in the Catholic church for a few years taught me that the hard way. Feeling a "personal relationship with god" and experiencing religious ecstasy for the first time when discovering the Sagas and Edda for the first time made me realize that. I never felt that as a Christian, but, I don't think all Christians are dumb idiots who can't tell fact from fiction anymore. I think a lot of atheists are fundamentally making the same error in dogma as biblical literalists are a lot of the time just on the other end. You know, not recognizing the ways your internal reality is colouring your experience of external reality. I'm still technically an atheist, but the Norse Gods are as real to me as I ("i" as in "the ghost in the machine") am to myself. My practice as a Heathen has done a lot for my mental health and was the beginning of me coming to terms with my own gender identity.

I send single-rune readings as fun little extras out with my orders because a) I hope it makes people remember my shop, lol, but also b) regardless that it's just random chance and vague proverbs most people can apply to their lives, there is some value in the introspection that kind of reading (hopefully) provides people. It's part of the Norse concept of the nature of fate--- that it's both unchangeable and uncontrollable, but that way it plays out isn't. The Norse used the analogy of a weaving, but for a more contemporary analogy, you might have no choice to tell someone something sometimes, but you can influence how they receive the information by how you word it. I'm not saying The Norse didn't literally believe in Gods and magic, but like, you know, they were kind of for lack of resources when it came to the scientific method, cut them some slack. The way we talk about "the supernatural" now is greatly influenced even in the secular context by the dominance of Christian theology, which kinda had a very anti-pagan and anti-animism bias. I don't think many pre-christian pagans would have actually seen much of a distinction between someone being insightful, and literally psychic. That was kind of the same thing to them, their rational was just a bit spectacular.

For the sake of clarity I typically identify myself as a "transman" or a "genderqueer transman" amoung other queer people who aren't going to get confused by the term "genderqueer," and that is true. I'm FtM, medically transitioned fully now, he/him pronouns, so for functionality when the information is relavent that works. But again, because my belief played such a big part in coming to terms with my gender identity, I actually in my heart of hearts consider myself "ergi."

"Ergi" is a bit of a tough concept to translate because it's culturally specific to the Norse (which weren't a unified people mind you, just a vague collection of Germanic, Scandinavian, and Celtic clans, so it wildly varied even within their own demographic.) You'll see it described as a "sacred third gender" and also as meaning, "unmanly" and that works to try and just, you know, simplify it down. But in English it's vague closest equivalent is actually "queer" ("odd" in an interpersonal context vaguely relating to social roles involving sexuality and gender identity.) But like, not even that's quite right. The "female equivalent" didn't have the same connotations, and calling a woman "ergi" ("agar"/"agari", but I'm trying to keep the etymology simple enough to follow here) didn't mean hyper feminine, it meant "witch." That's because, in modern language, the Norse saw gender (gender and gender expression being the same to them, mind you) as kind of fluid and "bigender." Or rather, as all people having both masculinity and femininity within them and quite literally your connection with "magic" (Seidr, the magic of the fabric of time and the natural world) was directly related to your "feminine" aspect. These were like, two stats you could fill independently without depleting the other. This is expressed in the characterization of the gods--- Odin being max manly and high level feminine, Freya being max feminine and high level masculine, Frigga being high level feminine and low level manly, Thor being high level masculine and low level feminine, and Loki being maxed out as both. And at the same time, "feminine" to them meant something closer to like, "fruity" in English. "Flamboyant, queer." Being outside gender and sexual norms meant you were on some fucking wizard shit. That's why male sourcerers or particularly "butch" female sourcers where believed to be capable of "Galdr." Chanting something into existence. Your levels of gender were just, over 9000. Too OP levels of queerness, gods plz nerf.

And like, I can understand why some people may interpret this as egotistical for me to say, but I do truly believe they were kind of on to something. Not that being queer makes you magic, but, being queer naturally forces you to develop a lot of perspective that cis straight people ABSOLUTELY CAN, but aren't so fundamentally confronted with by their very state of being. The more you're forced to question and come to terms with your own existence and place in social norms, the more you . . . See the forest for the trees, if you will. Not always, but, it's hard not to. I'm not a particularly conventionally masculine or feminine person, but if I didn't transition I couldn't have gone on. I couldn't just conform no matter how hard I tried (and I did, real hard) to either gender role. I couldn't bring myself to even pretend to date men while I still identified as a lesbian. "Too gay to function" as the kids say. That does really put the unreality of social norms into focus. Gives you a lot of perspective. "Ergi" is a term that more describes how you relate to social norms, but it's the one I identify with the most. I think I might have bluescreened under the weight of it all if it wasn't for my faith, so.

If you're not sure if you want to be the big titty goth gf or have a big titty goth gf, consult your nearest pagan god.

[medievalistaa]

“Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam.” - Pádraig Pearse (A country without a language is a country without a soul.)

[sierrawitch]

A bhò is miosa ‘th’ anns a bhuaile ‘si is cruaidh ni gèum.

The worst cow in the fold lows the loudest.

T.D. Macdonald

There is value in the silent; the voices less often heard, but whose words hold strong conviction and cause much change. Those with the loudest voices cause the most disturbance, and dissuade finding common ground in the heat of passion.

We are too quick to verbal combat, and too focused on drowning each other’s voices to the point that nothing is left but useless noise. But in quietude, there is proper discourse.

The worst person overpowers with the voice, and forbids others to contribute. Strive to be the silent one, like an immovable stone, with convictions rooted to the ground in stoic contest.

[softromanticwanderer]

Irish Proverb

Instagram: alaswrites

[albert85ie]

"May the roof never fall on you and the friends gathered under it never leave. May you always have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and may the path always open to your door."

[irishmeadows]

Free Irish Toast Printable

[worldofcelts]

Fire and salt are the two most sacred things given to man, and if you give them away on May Day, you give away your luck for the year.

Irish saying

[ashleysingermfablog]

Wk 00, 14th of September, 2024

Hawthorn-Mānuka poetry book

Bringing together my file of poems on my desktop, I created a larger text that unpacks the vegetal (from plants) connection between Wales and Aotearoa, looking at incorporating an almost field-notes structure of what I have been researching and what I have been viewing in the hedgerows of Auckland and the sculptural rituals I have been conducting.

ashley singer, e-pub version of hawthorn/mānuka, 2024, poetry

ashley singer, hawthorn/mānuka, 2024, poetry booklet

ashley singer, hawthorn/mānunka cover image, 2024, this text has poems that explore the intersection between the languages of aotearoa using common place te reo phrases and english prose, that intersect with Welsh (Cymric) proverbs, sayings, spiritual concepts

poems from hawthorn/mānuka

images from hawthorn/mānuka

These images are either from the film photographs I took on my 35mm film camera of vegetation in gardens around tāmaki or my iPhone images of significant trees around parks and plots in tāmaki, mainly magnolia trees that I think resemble Celtic fairy forts.

poem from hawthorn/mānuka

This poem is taken from Sylvia Victor Linsteadt's 'wild women, seer' blog which charts in each article that connection between what she calls old medieval oracles and their views on nature, and what can be seen in the contemporary landscape.