"_Alpin_. My tears, O Ryno! are for the dead,--my voice for those that
have passed away. Tall thou art on the hill; fair among the sons of the
vale. But thou shall fall like Morar; the mourner shall sit on thy
tomb. The hills shall know thee no more; thy bow shall lie in thy hall
unstrung!
"Thou wert swift, O Morar! as a roe on the desert; terrible as a meteor
of fire. Thy wrath was as the storm; thy sword in battle as lightning
in the field. Thy voice was a stream after rain, like thunder on
distant bills. Many fell by thy arm: they were consumed in the flames
of thy wrath. But when thou didst return from war, how peaceful was thy
brow! Thy face was like the sun after rain, like the moon in the
silence of night; calm as the breast of the lake when the loud wind is
laid.
"Narrow is thy dwelling now! dark the place of thine abode! With three
steps I compass thy grave, O thou who wast so great before! Four
stones, with their heads of moss, are the only memorial of thee. A tree
with scarce a leaf, long grass which whistles in the wind, mark to the
hunter's eye the grave of the mighty Morar. Morar! thou art low indeed.
Thou hast no mother to mourn thee, no maid with her tears of love. Dead
is she that brought thee forth. Fallen is the daughter of Morglan.
"Who on his staff is this? Who is this whose head is white with age,
whose eyes are red with tears, who quakes at every step? It is thy
father, O Morar! the father of no son but thee. He heard of thy fame in
war, he heard of foes dispersed. He heard of Morar's renown; why did he
not hear of his wound? Weep, thou father of Morar! Weep, but thy son
heareth thee not. Deep is the sleep of the dead,--low their pillow of
dust. No more shall he hear thy voice,--no more awake at thy call. When
shall it be morn in the grave, to bid the slumberer awake? Farewell,
thou bravest of men! thou conqueror in the field! but the field shall
see thee no more, nor the dark wood be lightened with the splendour of
thy steel. Thou hast left no son. The song shall preserve thy name.
Future times shall hear of thee,--they shall hear of the fallen Morar!
"The grief of all arose, but most the bursting sigh of Armin. He
remembers the death of his son, who fell in the days of his youth.
Carmor was near the hero, the chief of the echoing Galmal. Why burst
the sigh of Armin? he said. Is there a cause to mourn? The song comes
with its music to melt and please the soul. It is like soft mist that,
rising from a lake, pours on the silent vale; the green flowers are
filled with dew, but the sun returns in his strength, and the mist is
gone. Why art thou sad, O Armin, chief of sea-surrounded Gorma?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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