Thursday, October 17, 2013
Sweeter to Sweeney
Excerpt from Buile Shuibni (The Frenzy of Suibne), tr. Myles Dillon, Early Irish Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948; rpt. 1958), p. 99:
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Sweeter to me once than the sound of a bell beside me was the song of a blackbird on the mountain and the belling of the stag in a storm.
Sweeter to me once than the voice of a lovely woman beside me was the voice of the mountain grouse at dawn.
Sweeter to me once was the cry of wolves than the voice of a cleric within bleating and whining.
Though you like to drink your ale in taverns with honor, I would rather drink water from my hand taken from the well by stealth.
Though sweet to you yonder in the church the smooth words of your students, sweeter to me the noble chant of the hounds of Glenn Bolcáin.
