[fraser] GAELIC FOLK-SONGS OF CANADA 53 



We'll see no more MaoCrimmon's returning, 

 Nor in peace nor in war is he returning. 

 Till dawns the great day of woe and burning. 

 For him, for him, there's no returning. 



These verses lose much in the translation. In the original they 

 are remarkable for beauty of diction and for the depth of tender 

 feeling they express, anid one can easily understand the enduring 

 impression they would make upon the minds of sorrowing emigrants, 

 especially when sung to one of the sweetest minor mielodies in the 

 treasury of Gaelic music. 



To this class belongs Evan MacColl's (a charter member of the 

 Eoyal Society) "' Beannachd Dheireannach an Eilthirioh G-hailich," — 

 " The Highland Emigrant's Farewell/' one of the best emigrant's songs 

 in the language, the concluding lines of which are: 



********* * 



Uair eile, 's gu bràth, 



Beannachd bhlàth leat, mo dhuthaich! 

 Ged robh gu Lath'-luain | 



Falach-ouain ort bho m' shùll-sa, 

 Gu deireadh mo chuairt, 



O-earr no buan, bi'dh mi 'g urnuiigh, 

 O! Ard-rlgh nan dùl, 



Beannaich duthaich mo ghràidh! 



In this poem MacColl describes his father's feelings, overcome by 

 strong emotion as the mountain peaks of his native land recedes from 

 his view, and in turning away after the darkness has closed the scene, 

 the stern-visaged Gael vows eternal devotion to his native land, and 

 invokes a benediction upon its future. This poem, or song, composed 

 to the tune, " Erin gu brath,"' has been sung in the Old Land and 

 in Canada by at least two generations, separated by the wide Atlantic 

 yet on both sides of the ocean, each remembering the close relationship 

 betwixt them of kith and kin. 



When the Scottish Gael found a lodgement in Canada, the songs 

 of his race were not forgotten. That body of song was the common 

 heritage of the Kelt, the world over, but the soul of song did not live 

 on the poetry of the past only; it found its muse in the dense forest, 

 on the rivers and lakes, and at the happy firesides of the settlements. 

 Here in Canada, therefore, Gaelic poems and songs were composed in 

 the style of the older minstrelsy. Some of them can be compared 

 to the popular lyrics of the Highlands, The themes varied with the 

 glories of sea and land, the beauties of nature with her rich colourings 

 and varying moods ; the heroism and devotion of the women — of 

 mothers and daughters who bore the hardships of colonization with 



