Mac Neill — Three Poems in Middle-Irish. 547 



C. 



1 . Child, do not weep, though in sorrow thou art ; it will melt 

 my hieart^ if I hear thy weeping, 



2. If I hear thy weeping, it will be a duel of two warriors, it 

 will live till doom, each will be ... to grandson. 



3. It is a grandson that follows (a grandfather's) calling, special 

 is the calling of each grandson ; it belongs to thee, though thou 

 art king, it belongs to thee, though thou art druid. (23) 



4. It is certain it is truth, thou wast left desolate, thy fond father 

 dear, that he comes not to meet thee. 



5. That she comes not to meet thee, the wave-white pleasing'' 

 lady, thy mother the noble, who died in giving birth to thee. 



6. Who died in giving birth to thee, thy mother the noble, above 

 thee without concealment she was ia travail against a stone. (24) 



7. She was in travail against a stone, Moncha daughter of Dil, 

 that thou mightest be bom at the hour of the birth of thy King. 



8. Thou shalt be a king assuredly ; it has been given into thy 

 possession ; sooner wilt thou be dead than thou wilt be effemiaate. 



9. Thy descendants (25) shall be nobles, the band shall be pre- 

 eminent, it shall be a choice over heroes, a strand on which falls 

 a wave. 



10. Thy power from Teg Duind east to round Ath Cliath, thy 

 name to everybody shall be Fiachu, Man of Two Sorrows. 



1 1 . Two sorrows to thee the death of both, it was a great tragedy, 

 thy father and thy mother, a grief to thy bright house.^ 



12. Thy father and thy mother, two great tragedies abroad;* the 

 man was mortally wounded in battle, the woman died in giving 

 birth to thee. 



■' Bright, or white, in the literal sense. Cf . dun drech-sholuis Belga, CEnaR. 

 Possibly ban-thaig = woman-house (nnrsery ?), but bdnthaig makes assonance with 

 mdthair. 



* /. e. among folk generally. 



