Vento Mareiro. Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao.

All Paintings Home

1.   Breezes, Sweet Airy Winds     (Airiños, airiños aires)

(Cantares Gallegos, 1863)

She, Her, My Homeland

The noun "homeland" is genderless in English, but not in Galician: "miña terra" is a feminine pair. Every occurrence of the feminine pronoun in "Airiños, airiños aires" refers to the writer's homeland, not to a person, so it can also be translated as "my homeland" or "home" (1.4, 16.12).

Translator's Notes

The poems of "Cantares Gallegos" abound in the use of the affectionate diminutive peculiar to the Galician language. "Airiños, airiños aires" employs sixteen. The affectionate diminutive of a word ending in "a" is iña (feminine case) and the affectionate diminutive of a word ending in "o" is iño (masculine case). The plural variance is iñas and iños. Affectionate diminutives make the exercise of translating harder and something of artwork, but to ignore them altogether is to miss the full emotivity of the poem. On the plus side Galician affectionate diminutives afford the translator an opportunity to add alliteration, internal rhyme or lyrical sharpness to the text as part of the exercise of finding the best modifier which conveys size, frailty, sympathy or endearment depending on the context.

All the words in "Airiños, airiños aires" whose singular form ends in iña or iño are listed below together with a range of possible translations and a short explanation of the choice made where useful. Please note that not every word that ends in iña or iño is an affectionate diminutive.

• airiños. Dim. and pl. of "aire" (air, wind). There are two possible interpretations. The first and most common weighs the intensity of the wind and would translate as "light winds" or "breezes." The second views the wind with affection and would translate as "beloved winds" or "sweet winds" (cf. 14.1). The bulk of this poem endorses the second interpretation more than the first. However I picked the translation "breezes" to restrain the emotion, given that it pervades the rest of the poem already.
• airiños aires. This is an unconventional grammatical construct where a noun, "airiños," plays the part of an affectionate adjective. Hence an affectionate bias is required. "Airiños" can be translated as "sweet airs" and adjectivized to "sweet airy" while the noun "aires" means simply "winds." Combining both yields, "sweet airy winds." Another possible combination: beloved blowing winds.
• amoriño. Dim. of "amor" (love) translated "truelove." Other options: cherished love, darling, sweetheart.
• casiña. Dim. of "casa" (house) translated "dear house." Other options: house that I love, little house, precious house, small house.
• compañeiriños. Dim. and pl. of "compañeiro" (companion) translated "mates." Other options: buddies, chums, pals.
• corazonciño. Dim. of "corazón" (heart) translated "poor heart" to reflect the writer's despondency (5.7) .
• cunchiñas. Dim. and pl. of "cuncha" (seashell) translated simply "seashells." The affectionate diminutive was ignored because these shells are used for percussion (e.g. middle band player in this video).
• folliña. Dim. of "folla" (leaf) translated "poor leaf" to reflect the writer's despondency. Another option: hapless leaf.
• gaitiña. Dim. of "gaita" (bagpipe) translated "dear bagpipe." Other options: beloved bagpipe, Galician bagpipe (10.10), native bagpipe.
• galleguiños. Dim. and pl. of the Castilianism, "gallego," (Galician) translated "Galician...that I love." Another option: dear Galician.
• miña, miñas (my). Not a diminutive.
• mortiña. Dim. of "morta" (dead) translated "pass away sadly" Other options: grievously dead, peacefully dead, placidly dead, unhappily dead. However the second and third options clash with her restless shout to the passing wind.
• mouriña. Dim. of "moura" (either a Castilianism of "mora" meaning Moorish woman or a localism of "mourana" meaning a person of yellowish-brown skin). I opted for the Castilianism so "mouriña" can be translated as "pretty Moorish woman." Other options: cute Moorish woman, humble Moorish woman.
• mouriña moura. As with "airiños aires," the translation of this hyperbole benefits from adding the alternate interpretation, here "moura" as "a person of yellowish-brown skin" or "tan." The unconventional grammatical construct then translates as "tan, pretty Moorish woman" (7.5).
  Note: Verses 7.4-6 (dark skin) contradict verses 6.3-4 (pale skin) and intimate the possibility that there were two slightly different drafts of the same poem which mingled accidentally. It also bears pointing out that Spanish and Galician dictionaries tag "ralea" (7.6) as a demeaning term (lit. caste, lineage). However De Castro employs the affectionate diminutive "mouriña" alongside it, implying that no affront is intended.
• muchiña. Dim. of "mucha" (shriveled, withered). The phrase, "quedando muchiña," is translated, "withering away alas!" Other options: sadly withering away, wasting away alas!
• paxariño. Dim. of "paxaro" (bird) translated "little bird" connoting size and affection when the protagonist fancies becoming a bird (11.1) and translated "small bird" when she stops fantasizing (13.1).
• quitadoiriños. Dim. and pl. of "quitadoiro" (reliever, remover) translated "cherished healers." Other options: dear relievers, kind removers, soothing allayers.
• sospiriños. Dim. and pl. of "sospiro" (sigh) translated "sad sighs." Other options: sorrowing sighs, tender sighs.
• toliña. Dim. of "tola" (crazy, disturbed, mad) translated "delirious" since the protagonist would be delighted to be able to fly back home (11.4). Other options: ecstatic, giddy mad, wild.

Explanation of some words, terms or expressions

Source: Fátima Grandal Rodríguez

Bloodsucking witch (6.5). In Galician folklore a witch that enters a house at night to suck the blood of a sleeping child. This short film relates the legend of this witch. It is interesting to note that the tale has two meigas, one good, one bad. The good one (a "wise woman" who dwells on the far side of the woods) saves the last surviving child with her advice (min. 3:47-4:40).

Vaca vermella (10.2). Literally "red cow," a term used by dairy farmers, but a better approximation to the cow-coat's colour for a city dweller is, "golden-red."

Pombas que arrulás nas eiras (10.4). The word "arrulás" discloses that these pigeons are turtle doves (Galician: rulas).

Mozos que atruxás bailando (10.5). "Atruxar" is the blend of a yodel and a prolonged yell. Examples: Minutes 0:04-0:11, 1:48-1:52 and 3:10-3:15 of this video.

¡Muiñeira, muiñeira! (10.12). The muiñeira is a bagpipe melody in triple rhythm similar to the melodies of the Scottish Highlanders.¹ Although the reel is the premier melody of the Scottish Highlands it is usually played in duple rhythm with a time signature of 4/4 whereas the jig is played in triple rhythm with a time signature of 6/8.² Technically therefore the muiñeira resembles a jig more than a reel. In practice the average listener will find it difficult to distinguish between them (test yourself: here are some reels, here are some jigs). Some traditional muiñeiras are: Muiñeira de Chantada, Muiñeira de Lugo and Muiñeira de Pontesampaio.

Among the white skulls (16.8). An ossuary exposed to the air.

Onomatopoeias

Xas-co-rras-chás (10.7). Sound of two seashells being rubbed together, delivered approximately by "shas-caw-russ-chas" in the translation. A more accurate rendition with the Oxford Pronunciation Guide for English Dictionary is   /ʃɑs:/ /ko:/ /rɑs:/ /tʃɑs:/

Xurre-xurre (10.8). Sound of the tambourine (example) delivered approximately by "shur-ray shur-ray" in the translation or by   /ʃure:/ /ʃure:/

Run-run (14.8). Droning sound of the wind approximated by "roon-roon."

Musical Adaptation

Pop star of the seventies and eighties Víctor Manuel covered the song on Galician TV in 2008,

Víctor Manuel

Gustavo Freire the composer of at least eight notable Galician pieces published this rhapsody entitled, "Airiños Aires," in the year 1930,

Banda de Música "Ciudad de Plasencia"

Recital

Alma Selene