Riddles
There’s a garden that I ken
Full of little gentlemen,
Little caps of blue they wear,
And green ribbons very fair.
(Flax.)
I threw it up as white as snow,
Like gold on a flag it fell below.
(Egg.)
I ran and I got,
I sat and I searched,
If I could get it I would not bring it with me,
As I got it not I brought it.
(A thorn in the foot.)
From house to house he goes,
A messenger small and slight,
And whether it rains or snows
He sleeps outside in the night.
(Boreen—lane or path.)
On the top of the tree
See the little man red,
A stone in his belly,
A cap on his head.
(Haw.)
A bottomless barrel,
It’s shaped like a hive,
It is filled full of flesh,
And the flesh is alive.
(Tailor’s thimble.)
As I went through the garden
I met my uncle Thady,
I cut his head from off his neck
And left his body “aisy.”
(A head of cabbage.)
Out in the field my daddy grows,
Wearing two hundred suits of clothes.
(Ditto.)
Snug in the corner I saw the lad lie,
Fire in his heart and a cork in his eye.
(Bottle of whisky.)
’Tis round as dish was ever known,
And white as snow the look of it,
’Tis food and life of all mankind,
Yet no man e’er partook of it.
(Breast-milk.)
My daddy on the warm shelf
Talking, talking to himself.
(Pot on the hob, simmering.)
Up in the loft the round man lies,
Looking through two hundred eyes.
(A sieve.)
Out she goes and the priest’s dinner with her.
(Hen with an egg.)
Translated by Dr. Hyde and F. A. Fahy.