The proper names presented a problem not easy to solve. I determined to give them an Irish form and write them in Irish characters, as the infecting of the initial letter and the inflection at the end are thus more easily observed, and as it would look unseemly to write Scrooge, Topper, &c., in Roman type in the midst of Irish characters. I have not made an exception even in favour of Tiny Tim or old Joe. Tiny Tim appears in Irish as Taiḋgín Caol. Taiḋgín is not of course the exact equivalent of Tim, but it has been used as an equivalent by Irish speakers for several generations. Caol is only an approximation for Tiny. Scrúg is the nearest approach I could make in Irish to Scrooge. It need scarcely be said that several passages of the Carol present considerable difficulty to the translator, as many terms are used for which there are no very obvious Irish equivalents, and as, moreover, Dickens’s style and language in his descriptive and rhetorical passages are extremely un-Irish.
It is considerably more than a year since this translation was made, and, on looking back, I find certain things which I now regret. I think it would have been better to use the colloquial arsa, ars’, instead of ar, ‘said’ (he). I think, also, the preposition de should not be identified with do. I have, I think, in some places, written staid as 3rd. s. pf. of stadaim; I have always heard it so, especially in the phrase staid sé. Every-
