Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Hemingway's Shortest Short Story--in Irish Gaelic!

Bróga na bunóc a dhíol.
Níor bhain úsaid astu.



This is Ernest Hemingway’s short-short story: “For sale. Baby shoes. Never used.” --Translated by Paul Curran, my friend and Irish language teacher. We have an Irish language study group at the Irish-American Club East Side--in Euclid, Ohio, every Wednesday evening, 7-9 PM. We meet in the basement of the Club.

Paul uses a rather uncommon word for "baby" here. More common might be "leanbh," which is pronounced something like /LAHN-uv/. The entire story is pronounced approximately: BROH-guh nah BUN-oak ah YEE-ull. NEER whahn OO-sahj AH-stoo.

I guess Paul Curran would own the copyright on this translation. And the blame for it if it's incorrect!

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