Blair Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

•OSSIANIO POETRY. 195
Or, raising up her wings on high,
Amid the clouds she'll lightly glide.
Oft doth she journey o'er the sea
To lands where breaks the cold white spray,
Where sail or mast shall never be,
Nor oaken prow shall cleave its way.
Come to the brakes and mountain caves —
Thy mouth full of love's plaintive sighs—
swan ! from the land of the waves,
And sing me to rest from the skies.
Oh rise, with thy mild and sweet song!
Tell thy piteous tale from on high,
The echo will spread it along,
And send thy grief mournfully by.
liaise thy wing o'er the ocean's bound,
Grasp its speed from the strong wind above,
For sweet to my ear comes the sound
From thy much pain'd heart of sad love.
Whence do the wandering breezes roam,*
That waft us thus thy grief and care,
youth ! who went so far from home,
And left my hoary head so bare)
* At this place Mrs. Grant of Laggan — who has given a translation of
the " Old Bard's Wish," among her poems published in 1803 — makes the
following remark: — "As there is very little frost or snow in the islands,
great numbers of swans come there from Norway in the beginning of
winter. Some stay to hatch, but they mostly go northward in summer.
This furnishes the bard with the fine image, very strongly expressed in
the original, of the north wind bearing towards him the moan of the
departed ; upon which he inquires of the swan from what cold country
that well-known voice came. This affords him a pretence for digressing.