Ossian Collection > Reliquiae Celticae > Volume 2

THE BOOK OF CLAN RAN AFJ). 275
A victorious prince who did not break his word
Was Sir Norman to the time of death ;
Except the coffin in the earth in vvliicli he lies
There was no column raised for Ills monument.
The death of a prince of a mighty tril^e
Ls a want of honour to the learned professors ;
Woe to the poet who received attention,
His heart is gone without recovery.
Ours is greater than the lamentation for cities,
Above the grief for the daughters of supreme kings,
Or the death of a beloved spouse,
You may judge the severity of our affliction.
Seventeen hundred and two to be reckoned,
And three years the age of the supreme king,
A gold wand the purest to be seen,
To the death of the excellent son of Rory.
Were you to estimate the greatness of the anguish.
The vastness of the sorrow would suffice,
Among all persons, although lesser day by day.
The grief for him the time he died.
The pleasures of Innsigall have ceased.
[Omitted].
Without a remembrance of the time of our prosperity,
Bountiful was he in paying for poems ;
The cause of our sorrow I behold in the love —
The pure glory going to death.
Elegy
James MacdonaldJ
The grief for .lames is wounding heroes,
As they shall ever be without him ;
The floods of tears ai"e flowing pitifully
They are always speaking of liim witli anguish.
He was the child of the heroes, a pure handsome figure,
Sad is the deed that he has been cut off,
The son of the King of Cratuidh is in a girdle [i.e., coffin].
Early for him to hear the cli [? call].
^ Mackintosh says this is Sir .James Macdoiiald of Sleat. He, however,
-(lied in 1723 ; while our James Macdonald here died in 1738. Possibly it is
•lames Macdonald, the Uinist of Benbecula and Clanranald, the half brother nf
Donald of Benbecula, who succeeded tii the Clanranald chiefship in 172.5, on
the death of Ranald, brother of Allan of 17ir>.