       |
Life
| [Monsignor Browne; de Brún;] b. Grangemockler, Co. Tipperary, ed. Dublin; Sorbonne, Paris (Doc. Math.) and Gottingen, ord. 1913; appt. Prof. of Maths at Maynooth [NUI], 1914; appt. Pres. of Univ. College Galway (UCG), 1945, and Chairman of DIAS; Director of Arts Council; trans. num. classics from Greek, Latin, French and Italian into Irish; |
| Sophocles’ Antigone (1926); Oedipus Rex (Maynooth 1928); Oedipus at Colonus (Dublin 1929); also translated Racine’s Athalie (Dublin 1930) and Corneille’s Polyeucte (Dublin 1932); he was working on the Divine Comedy when he died - his Coméide Dhaiga Dante: Leabhar 1 - Ifreann (1963) being published posthumously with a preface by Máire Mac an tSaoi; |
| issued Beatha Iósa Críost, with Fr. Ó Baoghealláin (Dublin 1929); also Miserere, long poem, ed. Máire Mac an tSaoi (Dublin 1971); trans. Homer’s Odyssey as An Odaisé (1990); also published legal and medical documents; edited Aftermath of Easter Week, a pamphlet with contributions from Oliver Gogarty, Seamus O’Kelly, and Seamus O’Sullivan, to benefit Volunteers’ Independent Fund and Irish National Aid, suppressed by Govt.; there is a portrait by Estella Solomons; Mac an tSaoi is his neice. DIW DIB DIH OCIL |
[ top ]
Works
Scholarship, ed. two redactions of Trí Biorghaoithe an Bhais; also Iomarbhaigh im bhFileadh and Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Eirinn [copy-text on 18th-century paper; Michael White of Callan, Kilkenny, scripsit]; with Myles Dillon & Canice Mooney OFM, eds., Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the Franciscan Library of Killiney (DIAS 1969), xxvi, 185pp; ed., Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in King’s Inns Library (DIAS 1972), 105pp.
Translations incl. Coméide Dhaiga Dante: Leabhar 1 - Ifreann (M. H. Mac an Ghoill agaus a Mhac Teor. 1963), [iii-]iv, 299pp. [Notaí from p.255], and Do., as An Choiméide Dhiaga [by] Dainté Ailíghéirí, ed. Ciarán Ó Coigligh (BÁC: An Clóchomhar 1997), 380pp.; Odaisé, ed. Ciarán Ó Coigligh (BÁC: Coiscéim 1990). Poetry, Máire Mac an tSaoi, ed., Miserere (Dublin 1971);
See also Liam Prút, eag. [ed.], Athbheochan an Léinn nó Dúchas na Gaeilge: iomarbhá idir Pádraig de Brún agus Domhnall Ó Corcora [Daniel Corkery], Humanitas 1930-31 (Coiscéim 2005), 61pp.
[ top ]
References
DIAS (Cat. 1996) Lámhscríbhinní Gaeilge: treoirlio (DIAS 1988), pb., xi+101pp.[ISBN 0 901282 97 9]; Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in King’s Inns Library, Dublin (DIAS 1972), xviii+105pp., pbk [ISBN 0 901282 42 1]; Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the Franciscan library, Killiney (1969), xxvi+185pp., pbk [ISBN 0 901282 04 9]. Aintigoine, Drama le Sofoicleas (1st edn. 1926).
[ top ]
Quotations
Valparaiso: ‘Tháinig long ó Valparaiso / Scaoileach téad a seol sa chuan / Chuir a hainm dom i gcuimhe / Ríocht na greine, tír na mbua / “Gluais”, ar sí, “ar thuras fada […]”’. (Quoted in Dermot Bolger, ‘Primary Colours’ [“Finishing Lines”], in The Irish Times Magazine, 24 Nov. 2001, p.82.)
Inferno [beginning]: ‘I lár a bhealaigh tríd an saol so againne, / I bhfad on mbother direach dom as eolas, / Mothaíos tharnais i ndoimhneacht dhiamhair choille. Cad í mar choill í is deacair dom a chomhartú / ’S a fiántas crann a bhí chomh garbh láidir / ’S go dtig le smaoineamh air athnuachaint sceoin dom. / Is beag is géire an bás ná a ghéire atá san: / Scéal ar an ádh bhí romham ann sara ndéanfad, / Tá a mhalairt feicthe agam nach mór dom trácht air. [...] (p.3.)
[Original:] Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita / mi ritrovai per una selva obscura / che la diritta via era smarrita. / Ah quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura / esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte / che nel pensier rinova la paura! Tant’è amara che poco e piú morte; / ma per trattar del ven ch’io trovai, diro dell’altre chose ch’ i’ v’ho scorte. (Dán I; p.2.)
Inferno [ending]: ‘Tá slí ó Bealsabúl fada deighilte / ’S atá a leachtán féin leata amach sa domhan tíos, / Is gur le fuaim a bratear ’s nach le raharc í; / Mar cloistear feadh na faide ag titim abhainnín / Trína canáile i gcloich atá aici sciúrtha / Ag sileahd léi go mall ’na cúrsa cham síos. / Chabhamar, an treoraí is mise, an bóthar rúin sin / Chuin fillte suas ar ghile an domhain in airde. / ’S gan éinne againn ag cuimhniú ar shos ó chúram. / Suas linn, é sin chun tosaigh ’s mé ar a shála, / Trí pholl comhchruinn go bhfaca a raibh ag spéartha / A breithe leo timpeall thuas dá seadaibh áille, / ’S amach linn tríd ag athbreathnú na réaltan.’ (Coméide Dhaiga Dante: Leabhar 1 - Ifreann, Dublin: M. H. Gill 1963, p.253.)
[Original:] Luogo è lá giú da Belzebú remoto / tanto quanta la tomba si distende, / che non per vista, ma per suono, è noto / d’un ruscelletto che quivi discende / per la buca d’un sasso, ch’elli ha roso, / col torso ch’elli volge, e poco pende. / Lo duca e io per quel cammino ascoso / intrammo a ritornar nel chiaro monde; / e sanza cura aver d’alcun riposo / salimmo so, el prima e io secondo, / tanto ch’ i’ vidi delle cose belle / che porta ’l ciel, per un pertugio tondo; e quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle. (Dán XXXIV; p.252 [end].)
[ top ]
Notes
Máire Mac an tSaoi: Mac an tSaoi [later Mrs. Conor Cruise O’Brien] spent ‘extended stays in Dun Chaoin in the company of her beloved uncle Paddy [de Brún], for whom she used to interpret at petrol pumps at the age of six, assuming this translator of Racine had no English’. (See Mary O’Malley, ‘Language of the Heart’, interview with Mac an tSaoi, in The Irish Times, 26 Feb. 2000, Weekend.)
[ top ]