| Padraic Colum (1881–1972). Anthology of Irish Verse. 1922. |
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| 14. The Stars Stand Up in the Air |
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| By Thomas MacDonagh (Translated) |
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| THE stars up in the air, | |
| The sun and the moon are gone, | |
| The strand of its waters is bare. | |
| And her sway is swept from the swan. | |
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| The cuckoo was calling all day, | 5 |
| Hid in the branches above, | |
| How my stóirín is fled away, | |
| ’Tis my grief that I gave her my love. | |
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| Three things through love I see— | |
| Sorrow and sin and death— | 10 |
| And my mind reminding me | |
| That this doom I breathe with my breath. | |
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| But sweeter than violin or lute | |
| Is my love—and she left me behind. | |
| I wish that all music were mute, | 15 |
| And I to all beauty were blind. | |
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| She’s more shapely than swan by the strand, | |
| She’s more radiant than grass after dew, | |
| She’s more fair than the stars where they stand— | |
| ’Tis my grief that her ever I knew! | 20 |
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