Is dorn imm ceó.

Is dorn imm ceó.

(is * fist * around * fog)

It is like a fistful of fog.

This proverbial image is found in the poem “Colum Cille and Guaire”, in the appendix to “King and Hermit”. The full line as edited by Meyer is “na seóid dochí as dorn im ceó” (the wealth you see is a fist around fog); that is, “your wealth is insubstantial, fleeting, unreliable”. A similar formulation is found in the Laws and quoted by Kelly in EIF, p. 401: “Is dorn im gae ngréine” = It’s a fist around a sunbeam. See also “Ba gat imm gainem” in this collection.

Topics: Proverbial Sayings