Ossian Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

POEMS OF OSSIAN. 135
The epithets in the tranflation, of aged, midnight,
and shaggy, are not in the original, and inftead of
the figurative expreffion of the winds in their wrath,
the original, according to the fimple language ufual
in Gaelic, is the wind, and it high, that is, the wind
when it is high.
5 Bha gorm-fhhibhal nan f rut ha thall
Is ofag mhal o chuan bha faoin.' f
4 The blue moving (courfe) of the flreams was oppofite,
And a flow breeze from the fea, which was idle (quiet or at
[reft).'
' The blue courfe of a ftream was there : the lonely blaft of
ocean purfues the thiftle's beard.'
This picture of the wind pursuing the thistle's beard
feemjs a favourite one with the tranflator, as it is
found in many paffages of his work ; but it is here
altogether unwarranted by the original, which how-
ever is much more beautiful in its description of the
gentle breeze from a calm or quiet fea. The foft
flow of the Gaelic lines is ftrikingly accordant with
the fcepe they defcribe.
" Theft ,; able word as before.