"What God from Brugh of the Boyne,
Thou son of noble Sabia,
Thou beauteous apple-rod
Created thee with her in secret?
"O Man of the white steed,
O Man of the black swan,
Of the fierce band and the gentle sorrow,
Of the sharp blade and the lasting fame.
"Thy fair side thou hast bathed,
The grey branch of thy eyes like summer showers,
Over thy locks, O descendant of Fergus,
The wind of Paradise has breathed."[1]
We recognise that this is fine poetry, but we feel also that it needs a specialised education thoroughly to understand it. The world from which it hails is not our world, and to comprehend it we must do more than translate, we must add notes and glossary at every line; but no poetry, especially poetry under the initial disadvantage of a translation, could retain its qualities under such treatment.
In all the ancient verse we meet with these obstacles. Even much of the most imaginative Ossianic poetry becomes too difficult from this point of view for the untrained reader.
Take the fine poem detailing the history of the Shield of Fionn. Poetic addresses to noted weapons are common enough, and are not confined to Irish literature; but the adventures of this shield pass beyond the ordinary uses of human battles, and enter the realm of mythology. The very name given to it, the "Dripping Ancient Hazel," carries us into a world of poetic imagination.
"Scarce is there on the firm earth, whether it be man or
woman, one that can tell why thy name abroad
is known as the Dripping Ancient Hazel.
"'Twas Balor that besought Lugh before his beheading:
'Set my head above thy own comely head and
earn my blessing.'
"That blessing Lugh Longarm did not earn; he set up
the head above a wave of the east in a fork of hazel
before him.
"A poisonous milk drips down out of that hardened
tree; through the baneful drip, it was not slight,
the tree split right in two.
"For full fifty years the hazel stood, but ever it was a
cause of tears, the abode of vultures and ravens.
"Manannan of the round eye went into the wilderness
of the Mount of White-Hazel; there he saw a
shadeless tree among the trees that vied in beauty.
"Manannan sets workmen without delay to dig it out of
the firm earth. Mighty was the deed!
"From the root of that tree arises a poisonous vapour;
there were killed by it (perilous the consequence)
nine of the working folk.
"Now I say to you, and let the prophecy be sought out:
Around the mighty hazel without reproach was
found the cause of many a woe."