Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 2

A POEM, 03
tome forth In the morninq, and the voice of my harp
shall not be heard. " Where is the son of car-borne
Fingal ?" The tear will be on his cheek. Then come
thou, O Malvina'S with sJl thy music, come ; lay Os-
sian in the plain of Lutha : let his tomb rise in tlie
lovely field.
Malvina 1 where art thou with thy songs, with tlie
soft sound of thy steps ? Son c of Alpin art thou near ?
where is the daughter of Toscar? " I passed, O son of
Fingal by Tarlutha's mossy walls. The smoke of the
hall was ceased : silence was among the trees of the hilJ.
The voice of the chase was over. I saw the daughters
of the bow. I asked about M:Jvina, but they answered
not. They turned their faces away : thin darkness co-
vered tlieir beautv. They were like stars on a rainy
hill, by night, each looking faindy through her mist.'*
Pleasant^ be thy rest, O lovely beam i soon hast thou
set on our hills ! The steps of thy departure were state-
ly, like the moon on the blue trembling wave. But
thou hast left us in darkness, first of the maids of Lu-
tha ! We sit at the rock, and there is no voice ; no
light but the m.eteor of fire ! Soon hast thou set, Mal-
vina, daughter of generous Toscar! But thou risest
like the beam of the east, among the spirits of thy
friends, where they sit in their stormy halls, the cham-
bers of the thunder. A cloud hovers over Cona : its
blue curhng sides are high,^ The winds are beneath it,
with their wings ; within it is the dwelling of c Fingal.
b Malmhina, ' soft or lovely brow.' Mh in the Galic language
kis the same sound with V in English.
c Tradition has not handed down the name of this son of Alpin.
Hi^ father was one of Fingal's principal hards, and he appears him-
self to have had a poetical genius.
d Ossian speaks. He calls Mah'ina a beam of lifilit, and continues
the n-.etaphur throughout the paragraph.
e The description of this ideal palace of Fingal is very poetical*
ard agreeable to the notions of tiio.se times, concerning the state of
the deceased, who were supposed to pursue, after death, the plea-
sures anil etr-ploymcn** of tbsir fertiicr liii. T^ie siiuation af On'k: