Monk, remove thy foot,
Lift it off the grave of Nial.
Too long dost thou heap the earth
On him with whom I fain would lie;
Too long dost thou, Monk, there
Heap the earth on noble Nial.
Thou brown-haired friend, though gentle,
Press not with thy sole the earth.
Do not firmly close the grave,
O Priest, whose office is so sad.
Raise off the fair, black-kneed Nial,
Monk, remove thy foot.
Mac O’Nial of finest gold,
’Tis not of my will thou’rt bound.[167]
Leave his stone and his grave,
Monk, remove thy foot.
I am Gormlay, who order keeps,
Daughter I of Flann the bold;
Stand not thou upon his grave,
Monk, remove thy foot.
Monk.
* * * * *
Wounded thou hast been, great man,[168]
Whate’er the men were thou hast met;
Though thou art truly sad and sick,
’Tis joy to us that thou’st got fame.
Ten hundred ships from Greece of the Gael,
While of them only three were noble,
Thou didst attack with sharp-edged arms,
Sore was the strife while life did last;
That people with their many spears;
They live not now who were so pure,
Thy six nobles at last they slew,
Many their bold deeds at thy side.
That of thy wounds thou may’st be healed,
I pray for thee, pray thou thyself,
To Mary, the mother of the poor,
My Pater and my Creed’s for thee.
Wounded.
[166] This is another elegy of Gormlay, Queen of Ireland, on her
husband, Nial Glundubh. There is something extremely mournful in these
compositions of the youthful queen. Mr. O’Curry has kindly furnished
the Editor with Irish copies of these two elegiac pieces, which he is
about to publish in a second volume of his admirable Lectures.
[167] Referring, undoubtedly, to the mode of laying out the dead.
[168] The allusion in this fragment is not very clear. Celtic poetry is
full of reference to Greece, whence a portion of the race are said to
have come; but what this battle with Greeks was, the Editor cannot say.
These allusions belong, without doubt, to the period when both Scotland
and Ireland were brought into contact with Greek literature.