A note by MTB
This version of the poem is from Sean Mac Reamoinn's "The Pleasures of Gaelic Poetry", Allen Lane 1982.  I assume, since he does not say otherwise, that the translation is Sean's own.  I chose that version for Dick because it was given in both Irish and English on the page.  Kenneth Jackson (you remember our professor of Celtic) gives his own charming translation in his "A Celtic Miscellany", Routledge and Kegan Paul 1951 (there was also a Penguin edition), but does not give the original Irish.

Kenneth's translation is:

The Student's Life
The student's life is pleasant, carrying on his studies;
it is plain to you, my friends, his is the most pleasant in Ireland.
No king or great prince nor landlord, however strong, coerces him;
no taxes to the Chapter, no fines, no early-rising.
Early rising or sheep-herding, he never undertakes them,
nor yet does he pay heed to the watchman in the night.
He spends a while at backgammon, and at the tuneful harp,
or again another while at wooing, and at courting a fair woman.
He gets good profit from his plough-team when early spring comes round -
the frame of HIS plough is a handful of pens!
(Author unknown, 17th century)