Ossian Collection > Authenticity of the poems of Ossian

27
into mu'n, and meaning around ivMch, for mus and an,
contracted into the same form, namely, mw'w, but
meaning before that.
It should be —
"Such is the sonnd of Gormal, around which the storms of ocean rise."
In the description of the left-hand steed in Cuchul-
lin's chariot, for
"Bu shoilleir a dhreach, 's bu luath
'Shiubhal ; Sithfada b'e ainm,"
he has —
"Bright are the sides of the steed ; his name is Sulin-Sifadda."
Here he confounds the word siuhhal, which means
travel, or pace, with the horse's name, making it
Sulin-Sifadda, when only Sifadda itself is applied to
it in the Gaelic.
It should be —
For
'Bright is his figure, and swift his pace ;
Sifadda his name,"
'Theich Caratiul, 's a shluagh om' lainn;
Theieh e thall thar raoin au ardain,"
he has —
" Caracul has fled from our arms along the field of his pride."
Here he mistakes the word ardain, meaning a Utile
'height, for the same word when it means hotness or
haughtiness of temper. It should be —
" Caracul and his people have fled from my arms ; — they have fled
over the field of the height."
These are a few instances of what is to be met with
in every page of the translation, and which can be
accounted for only on the score that MTlierson did
not thoroughly understand the Gaelic. The instances,
agaiin, in which words of difficult, or (at the time)
unascertainable meaning are skipped altogether, are
more numerous still, while passages, often of great
beauty and even sublimity, arc rendered in a very
flat and insipid style, as when for
" 'Nuair a dlmiueas dorsan na h-oidhche
Air ioiair-shliil greine nan speur,"
he has —
" When the gates of the west are closed on the sun's eagle eye."
It should be —
" When the doors of the night are closed
On the eagle-eyed sun of the skies."
Thus in all these respects making the translation to
be anything but a fidl and perfect rendering of the