Kate's New Song!

[MATH TRIED ERR <METH@delphi.com>]

Hi!

I hope that subject line got somebody's attention.  To those of you who are
busy bitching about Tori Amos and anything and everything that's not Kate,
I say: Critic!  (cf. _Waiting For Godot_.  Never mind.)

I just had the pleasure of listening to a live performance on WFMU-FM in
East Orange, New Jersey (USA) by Susan McKeown, an Irish performer who now
lives in New York City and has an excellent band called the Chanting House.
They have an AMAZING album out on their own label, Sheela-na-gig Records
called _Bones_, and I exhort each and every one of you to run out and buy
it immediately.  One of the songs on it is called "Snakes/Mna na hElreann",
the second (Gaelic) half of which is a quite popular Irish poem.  According
to McKeown it's been put to music by several people lately, "And Kate Bush
even did it for a compilation that's coming out soon."

Needless to say, that comment piqued my interest.  This poem seems to be the
opposite of "My Lagan Love" -- the words exist, but not the tune.  I'm really
interested to hear what Kate did with it.

In case anybody cares (or better yet, can translate :), here are the words as
sung by McKeown:

Ta' bean in E'irinn a phronnfadh se'ad damh is mo sha'ith le n-o'l
Is ta' bean in E'irinn is ba bhinne le'ithe mo ra'fla ceoil
No' seinm the'ad; ata' bean in E'irinn is ni'orbh fhearr lei' beo
Mi'se ag le'imnigh no' leagtha i gcre' is mo tharr faoi fho'd

(To any would-be translators out there, it might help to rewrite these words
on a piece of paper and put the "'" marks over the letters immediately preced-
ing them here -- it's the only way I could type them out. :)

Have fun!

+===========================================================================+
|Meredith Tarr                                               meth@delphi.com|
|Boonton, NJ  USA                        http://remus.rutgers.edu/~woj/meth/|
+===========================================================================+
|             "We are not lost in the mortal city" - Dar Williams           |
+===========================================================================+