Alexander, hast thou left thy sadness,
Or is it so that thou canst not?
Hast thou without God passed another year,
Or dost thou mean to live thus ever?
Hast thou not found thy God,
Now that thou’rt aged and grey?
If sadness be prosperity,
Rich are the gifts thou’st got from God.
* * * * *
Four men met at the grave,[178]
The grave of Alexander the great;
They spoke the words of truth,
Over the hero of Greece the fair.
The first man of them said,
“There were yesterday with the king,
The world’s great hosts, sad the tale,
Though to-day he lonely lies.”
“Yesterday the world’s great king
Proudly rode upon the earth;
But to-day it is the earth
That rides upon the top of him.”
Then did the third wise speaker say,
“Yesterday Philip’s son owned the world;
But to-day he only owns
Of it all not seven feet.”
“Alexander, brave and great,
Who won and treasured gold and silver,
To-day,” the fourth man wisely said,
“The gold it is that treasures him.”
The palm among trees was Philip’s son,
The moon among the lesser stars,
As gold above the finest gems,
As among fish leviathan.
The lion amidst carrion,
The eagle among other birds,
As Sion hill amidst the hills,
As Jordan amidst other streams.
The polished gem ’mongst common stones,
The sea amidst all lesser streams,
Noble was the fearless man,
The man above all other men.
The man above all other men,
Save heaven’s great and holy King.
King he was of herds and boars,
Ruler of hosts and heroes too.
True was the talk these speakers had,
As at the great king’s grave they met.
Unlike to women’s empty talk,
Were the sayings of the four.
Four.
[177] This writer was probably an ecclesiastic, but nothing is known of
him.
[178] This composition is one of the few of the more recent fragments
in this MS. which appear elsewhere. We have a copy of it in the
collection of Gaelic poems made by Ronald M’Donald, schoolmaster of
Eigg, son of Alexander M’Donald, the famous Skye bard. M’Donald’s
edition was most likely taken down from oral recitation, and it is
remarkable how little it differs from this of the Dean’s, 250 years
before.
John M’Murrich said this.
The men of Albin, and not they alone,
Unless that M’Gregor survived,
How much wrath would them destroy!
All excellence in Alexander.[179]
[179] Alexander was a family name of the Macgregors of Glenstrae. In
the obituary contained in this MS. is the following entry:--1526.
Obitus Gregorii filii Johannis M’Gregor, alias M’Evine M’Allester de
Glenschray. This would indicate the period of Alexander as about the
middle of the fifteenth century.