Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

132 dar-thula;
ed in thy prefence, will rejoice. Thou art no\v clothed
with thy brightnefs : look from thy gates in the Iky. Burft
the cloud, O wind, that the daughter of night may look
forth, that the fhaggy mountains may brighten, and the
ocean roll its blue waves in light.
Nathos *is on the deep, and Althos that beam of youth,
Ardan is near his brothers ; they move in the gloom of
their cpurfe. The foris of Ufnoth move in darknefs, from
the wrath of car-borne Cairbarf . Who is that dim, by
their fide ? the night has covered her beauty. Her hair
fighs on ocean's wind ; her robe ftreams in dulky wreaths.
She is like the fair fpirit of heaven, in the midft of his
fhadowy mill. Who is it but Dar-thulaJ, tlie firft of
Erin's maids ? She has fled from the love of Cairbar, with
the car-borne Nathos. But the winds deceive thee, O
Dar-thula; and deny the woody Etha to thy fails. Thefe
are not thy mountains, Nathos, nor is that the roar of thy
climbing waves. The halls of Cairbar are near ; and the
towers of the foe lift their heads. UUin llretches its green
head into the fea ; and Tura's bay receives the Ihip.
Where have ye been, ye fouthern winds I when the fons
of my love were deceived ? But ye have been fporting on
plains, and purfuing the thiftle's beard. O that ye had
been ruftling in the fails of Nathos, till the hills of Etha
rofe I till they rofe in their clouds, and faw their coming
chief I Long haft thou been abfent, Nathos I and the day
of thy return is paft.
But the land of ftrangers faw thee, lovely : thou waft
lovely in the eyes of Dar-thula. Thy face was like the
light of the morning, thy hair like the raven's wing. Thy
foul was generous and mild, like the hour of the fetting
fun. Thy words were the gale of the reeds, or the glid-
ing ftr&am of Lorn. But when the rage of battle rofe,
thou waft like a fea in a ftorm ; the clang of arms was ter-
rible : the haft vaniftied at the found of thy courfe. It
was then Dar-thula beheld thee, from the top of her
mofly
• t^zthos fignifies youth ful ; Ailthos, exqvijite hemity^ ; Arclan, triik.
■\ Cairbar, who murdered Cormac l<ing of' li eland, and ulurpcu the throne. He
was afterwards killed by Ofcar the fon of OlHan in a fingle combat. The poet,
ypon other occafions, gives him the epithet of red-haired.
\ Dar-tiiula, or Dart-'huile, a'lvcman •with fine eyes. She was the moft fz;-
mous beauty of antirjuity. To this day, wlicn a woman is praifed for hei; beauty,
the common phrafe iS; ihzt Jhe is as love'y as Lar-thula.