’Tis time for me to go to the house of Paradise,
While this wound’s not easily borne,
Let me win this house, famous, faultless,
While others can tell of us nought else.
Confess thyself now to the priest,
Remember clearly all thy sins;
Carry not to the house of the spotless King,
Aught that may thee expose to charge.
Conceal not any of thy sins,
However hateful its evil to tell;
Confess what has been done in secret,
Lest thou expose thyself to wrath.
Make thy peace now with the clergy,
That thou may’st be safe as to thy state;
Give up thy sin, deeply repent,
Lest its guilt be found in thee.
Woe to him forsook the Great King’s house,
For love of sin, sad is the deed;
The sin a man commits in secret,
Much is the debt his sin incurs.
This is a sermon for Adam’s race,
I think I’ve nothing said that’s false,
Though men may death for a time avoid,
’Tis true they can’t at length escape.
Thou who hast purchased Adam’s race,
Their blood, their body, and their heart,
The things we cherish may’st thou assail,
However we may them pursue.
’Tis time.
[278] Murdoch of Scotland was the first of the great race of
Macvurrichs, bards to Macdonald of Clanranald. From all that can
be gathered regarding him, he was an ecclesiastic, and, according
to the measure of light he possessed, a man of earnest and sincere
religion. It was not known, until this volume of Dean M’Gregor’s was
searched, that any remains of his compositions existed; but here we
find several, all very much of the same character. There is one long
poem to the cross, which appears to have been modelled on the early
Latin hymns. Murdoch of Scotland, or Muireadhach Albanach, would appear
to have lived between A.D. 1180 and 1220. Mr. Standish H. O’Grady,
late President of the Ossianic Society of Dublin, kindly sent to the
writer some years ago a poem, still preserved in Ireland, containing
a dialogue between Muireadhach and “Cathal Cròdhearg,” the red-handed
Cathal O’Connor, King of Connaught, on the occasion of their embracing
a religious life. Cathal’s “floruit” is known to have been between A.D.
1184 and 1225. As the lines are curious, they are inserted here.
Cathal croibhdhearg agus Muireadhach
Albanach maraon iar n-dul anns na braithribh
dhoibh, cecinerunt:--
A Mhuireadhaigh, meil do sgian, go ’m bearram inn do’n Aird-rìgh,
Tabhram go milis ár mòid, ’us ar dhà trillis do ’n Trianaid,
Bearraidh mise do Mhuire, an bhreath so is breath òr-chridhe,
Do Mhuire bearr am bàrr so, a dhuine seang, sùlmhal so.
Anamh leat, a mhaca ghlan, sgian tar do bharr do’d bhearradh,
Fa mhionca rioghain bhinn bhog, a cìreadh a cinn thugad.
Gach ré n’uair do foilethi dhuinn, us do Bhrian ard bhairr
chladh-ùir,
’Us do fhoileinn uair eile ri stuaidh fhoiltfhinn Bhoroimhe.
Do ghrinn comh-shnamh ’us Ua Chàis, air linntibh fuara Forghais,
Air teacht air tìr leis o’n linn, do ghrinn ’us Ua Chais
coimhshling,
An dha sgian so leath air leath, do rad dhuinn Dunchadh Cairbreach,
Nior b’fhearr dhà sgian de sginibh; bearr gu mìn a Mhuireadhaich.
Meil do chlaidheamh, a Chathail, chosnas am Banbha braonsgathaidh,
Ni chuala gun fhachuin d’fhearg, a Chathail chuanna, chròdheirg,
Dion air fhuachd ’s air ainteas inn, a inghin uasail Ioachaim,
Dean ar coimhead ’s an tìr theith, a ro gheag mhìn, a Mhuire.
A Mhuireadhaich.