I.
Ni guorcosam nemheunaur henoid,
Mi telu nit gurmaur.
Mi am franc dam an calaur.
II.
Ni canu ni guardam ni cusam henoid,
Cet iben med nouel
Mi am franc dam an patel.
III.
Na mereit im nepleguenit henoid
Is diszur mi coueidid
Donn am riceur im guetid.
It is the song of a warrior mourning his fate and his solitude, and may
be thus translated:--
Neither repose nor sleep for me this night,
My house is no longer great.
For me and my servant no caldron more,
No songs, no smiles, no kisses this night,
As when I drank the fortifying mead.
For me and my servant no goblet more,
No longer joy for me this night.
My supporter is discouraged;
No one aids me in my distress.
The Irish character, in which this poem is written, is of the eighth
century, and Villemarqué has remarked upon its resemblance in sentiment
and character to a poem of Llywarch Hen, a Cumbrian bard of the sixth
or seventh century, whose poems are universally admitted to be
genuine, the orthography of which is much more modern. The poem is in
triplets, the first line also ending with “heno,” and a single stanza
or two will show the resemblance:--
Y stafel Kyndylan nis esmwyth-heno
Ar benn karec Hydwyth
Heb ner, Heb nifer, Heb ammwyth.
Istafel kyndylan ys tywyll--heno
Heb dan, Heb gerddau
Dygystudd deurudd dagrau.