When sunbeams dye their flowers as bright
As brilliants all ablaze:
And what a civil suit they wear
Of ribgrass and of hay,
And gay-topt herbs, o’er which the birds
Pour forth their pompous lay.
The Birlin has been translated by Sheriff Nicolson, and a part by Professor Blackie. The complete translation of Pattison was the first and is still the best. This poem is a master-piece of Gaelic poetry, and presents peculiar difficulties to the translator. After this “Blessing of the Ship,” the “Blessing of the Arms,” we have in the third part an incitement for rowing to a sailing place. The rowers are asked with a powerful sweep to
Wound the huge swell on the ocean meadow,
Rolling and deep.