Blair Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

12 MODERN GAELIC BAUDS.
While oar blades splash among the water,
And knobs clank on her side,
On with such force, you'll make her course,
With fearless pride.
Strong arms can drive this slender bark
Through the wide deep,
Right in the face of the blue billows'
Rising, bristling heap.
Now for such mettled manly crew,
Our oars to sweep;
To make the grey-backed ^eddies whirl
Where their strokes press' d,
And flag not, tire not, drowse not, bend not,
In the storm's rough breast.
Then after the six men and ten are seated at the oars, in order
to row under the wind to the sailing place, let stout Callum, son
of Ranald of the Ocean, shout the Iorram* for her, and be seated
on the foremost oar, and let this be it: —
Now, since you are rank'd in order,
And seem all to be well chosen,
Give her one good plunge, like champions,
Brave and boldly.
Give her one good plunge, &c.
Give her not a plunge imperfect,
But with right good will and careful,
Keep a watch on all the storm hills
Of the ocean.
Keep a watch, &c.
* Iorram (pronounced, Yirram) is a boat song, or an oar song, and
sometimes a Lament. This double meaning it acquired from the fact of
the Iorram being so often chanted in the boats, that carried the remains
of chiefs and nobles over the western seas to Iona.