Matheson Collection > Gaelic songs of Mary MacLeod

DIRGE 29
A gay gallant wert thou that shrank not in strife or battle;
thy limbs straight, long, and shapely; alas, I am sadly
reft, thou art lost to us by strength of tempest, thou
whose hand would cease not to make thy vessel speed.
Alas for my treasure reft from me, who was very goodly
of aspect in sun and in cold, lost in the ocean without
trace; that is what hath bowed down thy folk, that
thou couldst not reach them in that hour.
A gun that readily answereth, well would it become my
dear warrior in the cairn's summit or on the elbow of
the peaks; blood would flow in front of its discharge.
What hath left mine eyes tearful is to see thy land cheer-
less, now that thou hast a homestead without smoke
under the wave-lashed rock, thou from Raasay, thou
excellent son of Calum of the towers.
It is hurt and sorrow to me, that which hath befallen
him; a great roaring sea leaping about thy boat; thy-
self and thy stout crew, when your sails ripped, that
you could not bend your might upon them.