While echo with alacrity and joy answers them;
The youths and maidens are without music lamenting
That he departed from us and will never return.
He returns not, etc.”
This is perhaps too literal a rendering. Let us try Professor Blackie’s version. Blackie was an enthusiast for everything Celtic, and beautified everything in Celtic literature that his pen touched. A comparison of the two translations shows this:—
“Round Cullin’s peak the mist is sailing,
The banshee croons her note of wailing,
Mild blue eyes with sorrow are streaming,
For him that shall never return, Mac Crimmon!
No more, no more, no more for ever,