The Placer herald., 1861-05-25
Irish Terms of Endearment.
BY WILLIAM CARLETON.


There is no country in which the lhases of
good will and affection are so strong AS in
Ireland. The Irish language actually flows
with the milk and honey of love and friend
ship. Sweet and paatable is it to the other
sex, and sweetly can an Irishman, with his
deluding ways, administer it to them from
the top OF his meliiluous tongue, as dove
feeds her young, or rs kind mother her
babe, shaping with her own pretty mouth
every norsel of the delicate viands before it
goes into that of the infant. In this manner
does an Irishman, seated behind ditch on a
bright Sunday, when he ought to be at Mass,
feed up some innocent girl, not with "false
music" but with sweet words; for nothing
more musical or melting than his brogue
ever dissolved a female heart.
What language has a phrase equal in
beauty and tender ess to cushla ma chree-
the pulse of my heart? Can it be paralleled
in the whole lance of all that are, ever were,
or ever will be spoken, for music, sweetness,
and a knowledge of anatomy If an Irish
man is unrivalIed at swearing. he fairly
throws the world behind him at the barney.
In protesting friendship and making love,
give him but taste of the natice and he is a
walking honey comb, that every w'man who
sees him wishes to have lick at; and Heav
en- knows that frequently, at all times. and in
all places, does he himself get licked on their
account.
Another expression Of peculiar force is
rick machree, or, son of my leart. This is
not on y elegant but atfectunate, beyond al
most any other phrase except the foregoing
|: is, in a sense, somewhat different from that
in which the philosophical poet has used it,
beautiful comment upon the sentiment,
The clild's the father of the man." uttered
by the great, we mig yht almost say the glor-
ious Wordsworth.
We have seen many youth, on more
occasions than one standing in atf1clion
over the dead body of his aged father, ex
claiming, "Ahir vic mochree, vic machrea,
wuH thu mora poum? acua thee mora
acoom?-Fa,her, SON OF MY HEART son of my
we think under any circumstances, not sur
passed in the intensity of domestic affliction
which it expresses; but under those alluded
to, we consider it altogether elevated, in
exquisite and poetic beauty, above the most
powerful symbols of Oriental imagery.
A third phrase peculiar to love and affec
ion is, "Manim asthee hu," or, my soul is
within you. Every person acquainted with
language knows how much an diom suffers
bl literal translation. How beaut fu
;he,l-how tender aud powerful must these
short expressions be, uttered too, with a
ftr.or of manner peculiar to deeply feeling
people, when, even after literal translation,
they carry so much of their tenderness and
energy into language whose genius is cold
when compared to the glowing beauty of the
Irish.
.Mapou1neen dheelish, too is only short
phrase, but coming warm and mellowed from
an Irish,nan's Ii ips into the ear of his colleen
dohs, i: is a perfect spell-a sweet murmur-
to which the tents susurrus Of the Hyba
bees with all their honey, is jarring discord
How tame is "My sweet darling" its literal
translation, compared to its soft and luIling
ntonalons? There is a dssolving, entranc
inc, beguing, deudinc, Aatcring insnuat
ING, coaxing, winning, inveighling, roguish,
palaverirg, come overrng, come-here ing,
ronsentng, blarneying, killing, willing charm
in it, worth all the philters that ever the
gross knavery of withered alchtmist i'm
posed upon the crrdulily of those who in
hat it the other nations Of the earth-for we
don't read that their shrivellel philter mon
gers ever prospered in Ireland.
No. no-let the Irshman alone. IT he
hates intensly, effectualy, and inquestmgly,
he loves intensely, comprehensiveIy and
gaantly. To love with power is a proof
of large soul; and t" hate we'll is, accord
ing to the great mo,alst, a thing in itself to o
be loved Ireland is, therefore, through all
its sects. parties, and religions, an amicable
nation.