The Kiltartan Poetry Book; prose translations from the IrishGregory, Lady
General
The Kiltartan Poetry Book; prose translations from the Irish
Gregory, Lady
Irish literature -- Translations into English
And his wife came to a rock where she could speak with him, and she
called to him to come to her. "Come over to me," she said; "and it
is a pity you to be blinded where you are, on the rocks of the waste
sea, with no drink but the salt water, a man that was first in every
fight. And come now to be sleeping beside me," she said; "and in place
of the hard sea-water I will nourish you from my own breast, and it
is I will do your healing," she said; "for it is seven years since
you wedded with me, and from that night to this night I never got a
hard word from you. And the gold of your hair is my desire for ever,"
she said, "and do not stop withering there like an herb in the winter-time,
and my heart black with grief within me."
But Goll would not leave the spot where he was for all she could say.
"It is best as it is," he said, "and I never took the advice of a woman
east or west, and I never will take it. And O sweet-voiced queen,"
he said, "what ails you to be fretting after me; and remember now your
silver and your gold, and your silks and stuffs, and remember the seven
hounds I gave you at Cruadh Ceirrge, and every one of them without
slackness till he has killed the deer. And do not be crying tears after
me, queen with the white hands," he said; "but remember your constant
lover, Aodh, the son of the best woman of the world, that came out
from Spain asking for you, and that I fought at Corcar-an-Deirg. And
go to him now," he said, "for it is bad when a woman is in want of
a good man."
And he lay down on the rocks, and at the end of twelve days he died.
And his wife keened him there, and made a great lamentation for her
husband that had such a great name, and that was the second best of
the Fenians of Ireland.
_The Death of Osgar_
And after a while, at noonday, they saw Finn coming towards them, and
what was left of the Sun-banner raised on a spear-shaft. All of them
saluted Finn then, but he made no answer, and he came up to the hill
where Osgar was. And when Osgar saw him coming he saluted him, and
he said, "I have got my desire in death, Finn of the sharp arms." And
Finn said, "It is worse the way you were, my son, on the day of the
battle at Ben Edair, when the wild geese could swim on your breast,
and it was my hand that gave you healing." "There can no healing be
done for me now for ever," said Osgar, "since the King of Ireland put
the spear of seven spells through my body."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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