C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Deirdrê’s Lament for the Sons of Usnach
By Ossian and Ossianic Poetry
T
And I am left alone—alone:
Dig the grave both wide and deep,
For I am sick, and fain would sleep!
And I am left alone—alone:
Dig the grave both deep and wide,
And let us slumber side by side.
Sleep that wakes not for our weeping:
Dig the grave, and make it ready,
Lay me on my true-love’s body.
By the warriors’ sides aright:
Many a day the three before me
On their linkèd bucklers bore me.
’Neath each head, the blue claymore:
Many a time the noble three
Reddened their blue blades for me.
Of the greyhounds at their feet:
Many a time for me have they
Brought the tall red deer to bay.
Hook and arrow, line and bow:
Never again, by stream or plain,
Shall the gentle woodsmen go.
Harsh to me, your sister, never;
Woods and wilds, and misty valleys,
Were with you as good’s a palace.
Sweet as sounds of trumpets ringing;
Like the sway of ocean swelling
Rolled his deep voice round our dwelling.
Round our green and fairy shealing,
When the three, with soaring chorus,
Passed the silent skylark o’er us.
Lark, alone enchant the heaven!
Ardan’s lips are scant of breath,
Neesa’s tongue is cold in death.
Salmon, leap from loch to fountain—
Heron, in the free air warm ye—
Usnach’s sons no more will harm ye!
Rulers of the ridge of war;
Never more ’twill be your fate
To keep the beam of battle straight!
Traitors false and tyrants strong,
Fell Clan Usnach, bought and sold,
For Barach’s feast and Conor’s gold!
Woe to Red Branch, hearth and hall!
Tenfold woe and black dishonor
To the foul and false Clan Conor!
Sick I am, and fain would sleep!
Dig the grave and make it ready;
Lay me on my true-love’s body.
Here now are two of the Ossianic ballads as Macpherson has rendered them, trying in his rhythmic prose to capture the spirit and charm and glamour of the original. The theme of the first, of a woman disguising herself as a man so as to be near or perhaps to reach her lover, is common to many lands.