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

ÌS'Ì' REPORT ON TH£
This Is certainly a very good, and, wheil the ori-
ginal is poetry, may be confidered a clofe tranflationj
but it wants the fimple defcription, the adlual pic-
ture of the oripinal.
« Air mullach bha crom chruth Loduinn
Is clacha mor nan iomadh buadh.*
«^ On a top (or fmall height) was the circle of tlie form (or
[image) of Loda^
And the large ilones of many virtues.'
' On the top is the circle of Loda, the moffyflone of power.'
Here is the fame departure from the fimple de-
fcription of the original, ' the large ftones of many
virtues/ Befides there being in the GaeHc no epi-
thet mossy, the fmgular stone was contradidory to
the defcription, in the preceding line, of a circle,
which could only be compofed of many ftones.
* Air iofal bha raon gun mhòrchùis
Agus feur is craobh ri cuan ;
Craobh a bhuain a 'ghaoth 'f i ard
O iomall nan earn gu raon.'
'■ Upon the low (ground) was a plain, without greatnefs (extent).
And grafs and a tree near the ocean ;
A tree which the wind had torn, audit (the wind) high,
From the edge of the Ilones to the plain.'
* A narrow plain fpreads beneath, and aged trees, which the
ir.idnight winds in their wrath had torn from the (haggy rock-.*
The