Blair Collection > Sar-obair nam bard gaelach, or, The beauties of Gaelic poetry, and lives of the Highland bards

INTRODUCTION.
Ivii
" Bu ghile bian na canach sleiblite,
No m--sneachd air bharra gheuga.***
" The star of Gormluba was fair. White were the rows within her lips, and lilie the
down of the mountain under her new robe was her skin. Circle on circle formed her fair-
est neck. Like hills beneath their soft snowy lleeces, rose her two breasts of love. The
melody of music was in her voice. The rose beside her lip was not red ; nor white be-
side her hand, the foam of streams. Maid of Gormluba, who can describe thy beauty !
Thy eyebrows, mild and narrow, were of a darkish hue ; thy cheeks were like the red
berry of the mountain-ash. Around them were scattered the blossoming flowers on the
bough of the spring. The yellow hair of Civadona was like the gilded top of a moun-
tain, when golden clouds look down upon its green head after the sun has retired. Her
eyes were bright as sunbeams ; and altogether perfect was the form of the fair. Heroes
beheld and blessed her."
What a poetical picture of a vessel in a gale does Alexander MacDonald, in his Pros-
nachadh Fairge or stinmlus to a Biorlin's crew, give us : the imagined bellowing and roaring
of I he monsters of the deep, wiiose brains were scattered on every wave by the prow, the
boat being damaged in the furious collision ! &e., evince a truly imaginative genius.
Tlie old bards called Echo, " the son of the rock" — Maclntyre's "ghost of sound," is
umch more poetical.
There is fortunately less necessity for extending the number of examples, inasniucli as
the bardic " beauties" are so liberally spread before the reader in the succeediuL;' pages;
yet before closing our extracts, it will not be accounted a digression, to give a short spe-
cimen from the compositions of the Sister-kingdom. ' The Songs of Deardra,' are held
by the Irish to be of equal, if not greater antiquity than those of Selma. As the poetry
of a kindred people, it is similar in character; but those who are conversant with the sub-
ject of ancient Gaelic versification and its peculiar idioms, will be able to sav whether it
carries the mark of so remote an era as is claimed for it.
Soraidh soir go b Albain uaim, larla maithe Albann ag ol,
Faith maith radharc cuan is gleaim. Is clann Uisneach dar coir cion
Fare claim Uisueach a seilg, Dingeau tliiarna Dhu:i na Ttreoin,
Aobhinii siigbe OS leirg a nibeanii. Gu thig Naoise pog gan fbios, ice.
" Farewell for ever, fair coasts of Albion, your bays and vales shall no more delight
me. There oft I sat upon the hill, with Usno's sons, and viewed the chase below.
The chiefs of Albion met at the banquet. The valiant sons of Usno were there, and
Naesa gave a kiss in secret to the fair daughter of the chief of Duntroon. He sent her a
hind from the hill, and a young fawn running beside it. Returning from the hosts of
Inverness, he visited her by the way. My heart was filled with jealousy when I
* Bas Airt 'ic Aidaiv. Smith's Antiquities, 360.