Three Irish Bardic Tales Being Metrical Versions of the Three Tales known as The Three Sorrows of Story-telling. By John Todhunter |
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THE SWANS' LAMENT FOR THE DESOLATION OF LIR. |
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 | Three Irish Bardic Tales |  |
THE SWANS' LAMENT FOR THE DESOLATION OF LIR.
1
A lost dream to us now is our homeUllagone! Ochone-a-rie!
Gall to our heart! Oh, gall to our heart!
Ullagone! Ochone-a-rie!
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2
A hearthless home, without fire, without joy,Without a harp, without a hound!
No talk, no laughter, no sound of song,
Ullagone for the halls of Lir!
3
Where now are the prosperous kings?Where are the women? Where is the love?
The kiss of welcome warm on our cheeks?
The loving tongue of hounds on our hands?
4
Oh! the greatness of our mishap!Oh! the length of our evil day!
Bitter to toss between sea and sea,
But worse the taste of a loveless home.
5
Children we left it, swans we return.To a strange place, strangers. None lives to say:
‘These are the Children of Lir.’ A dream,
In a dream forgotten are we this night!
6
Is this the place of music we knew,Where howls the wolf through the halls of Lir?
Where mirth in the drinking-horn was born,
Chill falls the rain on the hearth of Lir.
7
Ullagone! Ochone-a-rie!Gall to our hearts is that sight to-night
Ullagone! Ochone-a-rie!
A lost dream to us now is our home!
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So sang they. ‘Let us go,’ Fianoula said, ‘for hereWe have no more a home; back to the breezy west
Our flight must be. Now Lir, wandering in Fairyland,
Beholds a phantom sun.’ So spake she, and back they flew.
| Three Irish Bardic Tales | |