This is probably the true meaning of the Gaelic. But the original might be rendered in English by the following translation:—“Let it be on the conscience of each man in whom shall be for good fortune the booklet with colour, that he give a blessing on the soul of the poor one who wrote it.” Rath is good fortune, and li is colour, referring probably to the coloured portions of the writing, and Truaghan is the Gaelic synonym of the “miserus” or “miserimus” of the old Celtic church. Mr Whitley Stokes, as quoted by Dr Stuart, says (p. lx), “In point of language this is identical with the oldest Irish glosses in Zeuss’ Grammatica Celtica.”
The Albanic Duan.
This relic of Celtic literature might have been taken as chronologically preceding the Book of Deer, but while portions of the latter are looked upon as having been written previous to the ninth century, the former, so far as we know, is of the age of Malcolm III. It is said to have been sung by the Gaelic bard of the royal house at the coronation of Malcolm. It is transcribed here as it appears in the Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, where it is given as copied from the M’Firbis MS. in the Royal Irish Academy:—
A eolcha Alban uile,
A shluagh feuta foltbhuidhe,
Cia ceud ghabhail, au còl duibh,
Ro ghabhasdair Albanbruigh.
Albanus ro ghabh, lià a shlogh,
Mac sen oirderc Isicon,
Brathair is Briutus gan brath,