J. F. Campbell Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

POEMS OF OS^AN.
Mar dhh lus finn fan drùchd ri gairc,
Taobh na crcigc 'm bias na grèine ;
Gun fhreumh air bith ach an aon,
Aig an da Ins aobhach aoibhinn.
Shèun òiglican Chaothain na luis ;
Is boidheach, leo fein, am fas !
Shcun is na haighcan ea-tam,
Ge d' thug an tore do aon diu 'm biii».
Is trom trom, 's a cheann air aoma',
'N aon lus faoin tha fatliafd bco,
Mar dhullleach air fcarga fa ghrein ;
— Ob' aoibhinn bhi nis gun deo !'
* Like two plants fmiling in the dew.
By the fide of the rock in the warmth of the fun,
With undivided root,
But the two plants happy and joyful.
The maids of Caothan forbore to hurt the plants ;
Beautiful to them was their growth !
The light hinds alfo fpared them.
But the boar gave one of them its death.
eavy, heavy, with bending head,
Is the one weakly plant which is ftill alive.
Like the bud wither'd under the fun,—
O ! happy were it to be without life ! '
The original adds to the tendernefs of the fenti-
ment the plaintive foftnefs of beautiful verfe. But
this is only to the ear of the Gaelic fcholar ; one
unacquainted with that language, who looks on the
written Gaelic, and fees the number of confonants
Tmute or merely afpirate in the pronunciation) with
which