Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

JEROME STONE. 55
or other have come in Macpherson's way, it
will be interesting to show the kind of rendering
for which he won acceptance, if only to give an
example of the freedom which was commonly
allowed in the process of translation at that
period. The fact that Stone's version jmssed
for a fair one has an important bearing on any
estimate that may be formed of Macpherson's
work. The poem in the Gaelic original is entitled
Fraoch's Death; and, literally translated, the first
three verses run as follow : — ^
" The sigh of a friend in the grove of Fraoch !
A sigh for the hero in its rounded pale,
A sigh which causes each man to mourn,
And which makes each maiden weep.
" There to the westward is the cairn
Which covers Fraoch, son of Fiach, of the soft
hair.
He who obeyed the call of Mey,
And from whom that cairn of Fraoch has its
name.
" The maids from Cruchan weep.
Sad is the cause of their woe.
For their mournful sighs are occasioned
By Fraoch, son of Fiach, of the ancient weap-
ons."
^ They are given in the Beport of the Committee of the
Highland Society on the Poems of Ossian (Edinb., 1805),
App., 103.