Tá an samhradh thart, dá dtabharfá samhradh air. Bíonn a fhios agam go bhfuil na laethanta gearra ag teacht inár dtreosa nuair a bhíonn an comórtas Rós Thrá Lí ar an teilifís, rud a tharla le déanaí. Ach ní bheidh mé ag caoineadh faoi imeacht an tsamhraidh – cuirim fáilte is fiche roimh an bhfómhair. The summer is over, if you could call it a summer. I always know that the days will be shortening when the Rose of Tralee competition comes along, and there it was only a few days ago. But I won’t be lamenting the days of summer – I’ll welcome the autumn with open arms.
Ar bhealaí is fearr an Fhómhair in Éirinn ar aon chuma. Gach Bealtaine, tosaíonn daoine ag caint faoin samhradh a bhéas againn agus na laethanta grianmhara a chaithfidh muid cois fharraige, an ghrian ag scoilt na gcloch agus muid sínte siar ag ól agus ag comhrá le cairde. Ní mar sin a tharlaíonn sé, faraor, agus caitheann muid an chuid is mó de na laethanta ag féachaint ar an spéir, ag súil le rian den ghrian a fheiceáil. Bíonn díomá orainn agus drochspin ar roinnt mhaith daoine.
Sin an fáth go dtaitníonn an Fhómhair liom, tá sé ar nós cara nach bhfaca tú leis na cianta, tagann sé gan raic a tharraingt air, agus sásaíonn sé muid. Cé go mbíonn na laethanta níos giorra, bíonn solas na gréine caite ar dhuilleoga atá de shíor ag athrú.
Ní bhíonn muid ag súil le mórán ón bhFómhair ach díreach ar nós an cara sin, tugann sé solas agus sólás dúinn nuair a bhíonn sé de dhíth orainn.
Is scríbhneoir agus léachtóir le Gaeilge í Siún Ní Dhuinn in UCD
In ways, the autumn in Ireland is better anyway. Every May, people start talking about the summer we’ll have, and the sunny days we’ll while away with friends beside the sea, the sun splitting the stones. But that’s not what happens, and then we spend most of the days looking towards the sky, in the hope that we might see a trace of the sun. We are disappointed and some of us are even in bad form over it.
That’s the reason that I like the autumn. It’s like a friend we haven’t seen in ages, it arrives without making a song and dance about it, and it makes us happy. Even though the days are shorter, the light from the sun throws itself onto leaves that are ever changing.
We don’t expect much from it, but just like that friend, it gives us both light and solace when we need it.
Siún Ní Dhuinn is a writer and lecturer at UCD
