Classic Poem

Accursed is he who, without affection for his pale face with its soft, grassy down, caused Giolla Pádraig to blush and reddened the cheek of the pale, noble hero—woe to him who ought not have done so—over the matter of a gift. Cursed is he who embarrassed the smiling cheek of the ruddy, dark-taloned hawk; to bring colour to the expanse of the white level of his countenance was a thing unheard of. Accursed is the tongue that brought anger across his royal, havoc-bringing face; O God, to anger the hero as he drank with my kinsmen was an unjust deed. It was one of us, alas, who brought a blush across your face through falsehood; what reddened your fair, sparkling cheeks, alas, was an unjust satire. Shame seared the heart of him of the dark-red mouth and white neck; when anger reddened his eye, the dark, white-cheeked one was unrestrainable. Little was noticed of his anger in his voice or in his speech; spectral though not tempestuous was the black-lashed, brown-browed one. Yet were I myself to satirise excessively the high king of Oirthear, in all the satire there would be naught but praise; behold a poem to restore him. I will make a poem for his soft cheek that will lessen Giolla Pádraig's hurt; it will be like a red-hot stone in a cold tub; his anger will cease from distressing him. Did he but know it, long is the achievement of him who satirized O hAnnluain; I am not concealing the fellow's spite—that crime is a separate question. I have a story about satire for the hero who is without reproach; I shall bring the pure, pale, curly-haired one a tale only that deals with what is firmly established. Noble Aithirne went on a journey to great, fierce Munster upon which he reddened a fresh-sided, slender cheek and got one of Eochaidh's eyes. The poet, as he came from Munster, met a river: a rocky, very quiet, oar-plied stream, the Modharn full of trout and salmon. He and his wife with him come to a ford to go across; the woman sees the breast of a salmon through the rapid waters of the Modharn. There comes over the wife of the wary poet a desire for the golden-finned salmon; to ask for the speckled, spotted, white salmon was an unwise request to make. You know the way of women—one cannot oppose them; she asked the poet, though it was an unhappy request, for a salmon from the Modharn. When the poet did not obtain the wondrous, slender salmon, he satirized about its salmon the pale, sandy, swift and very blue Modharn. The Modharn alone was astonished at being satirized unjustly; the torrent changed its shape; the river's protest was made known. The river from mouth to source gathered itself in one place and the branching, bright torrent broke out in pursuit of the poet of the Ulaidh. They see the huge, spirited Modharn making towards them vehemently and hastily—what outraged stream would be more speedy?—it was angry with Aithirne. He made an impromptu poem of praise to dispel its impetuosity; the Modharn, though deaf and mute, heard him utter its praise. Its sense and its memory came to the Modharn as it was praised; it brought him the choice salmon; it gave it as hospitality to the poet. It left behind as the price of the praise its purple and speckled salmon, so that it caused all the green, fresh, marshy ground to be full of fish when it had turned back. The Modharn accepted the praise as restitution for the poet's wrong: a comparable poem will go forth from me against the spite of the satire on Ó hAnnluain. There will be restitution for the poem; the reproach will be swept away; the satire on the hero will not be recited; more sweet will the lay be that has been amended. No-one now will recite a satire; a lie usually lasts only for a while; it is like a mountain stream that freezes or a ray of the winter's sun. Or like a blast of wind against a valley is a reproach to the champion of Ireland; the unjust rebuke to Ó hAnnluain went away immediately with the current. I will enumerate the hero's successes after enumerating his prowess; criticism of him has gone with the torrent—it is not right to try to list his successes. East and west the settlements of the Foreigners of Ulster and Oriel were plundered by him; the settlements of the Foreigners of Midhe and their market, the chief of Line were utterly plundered. He will defend Magh Muirtheimhne of the hunting-hounds against the battalion of the Monaigh; he will shed the blood of the man of Monach round the plain in which the Hound of the Smithy fell. Craobh Tulcha, where Eochaidh fell, was plundered by him in swift raids; Magh Rath, in which Conghal was routed in battle, was rendered without cows. He took from the Sons of Aodh of the hunt plunder that was shameful to the Airghialla; he took from Leath Cathail with its white stones booty which disgraced the Ulaidh. He took great plunder from Magh Cabha; every man will have his trophy; he made a remarkable foray into the Aird; he plundered pale Magh Line completely.