Thomas' Poem?
Can anyone tell me the name and/or author of the poem quoted by Thomas to Lavinia? (when they were both standing looking out to sea one moonlit night)
share"A Magic Mist" by Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin (1748-1782).
Through the deep night a magic mist led me
like a simpleton roaming the land,
no friends of my bossom beside me,
an outcast in places unknown.
I stretched out dejected and tearful
in a nut-sheltered wood all alone
and prayed to the bright King of Glory
with "Mercy!" alone on my lips.
My heart, I declare, full of turmoil
in that wood with no human sound nigh,
the thrush's sweet voice the sole pleasure,
ever singing its tunes on each bough.
Then a noble sidh-girl sat beside me
like a saint in her figure and form:
in her countenance roses contended
with white - and I know not which lost.
Though lost to myself till that moment,
with love for the lady I throbbed,
and I found myself filled with great pleasure
that she was directed my way.
How it fell, I write out in these verses
- how I let my lips speak unrestrained,
the sweet things that I told the fair maiden
as we stretched on the green mountain slope...
In the next-to-last line of the first verse, Thomas says "and I prayed to the bright God of Glory" instead of as translated here. More of the poem is included in the essay at http://www.stfx.ca/academic/celtic-studies/papers/Stirling-430.pdf (NO LONGER THERE). The essay also puts the poet and poem in context with two other Irish poets and their works.
That's fabulous. Thank you so much. I've only just stumbled over your reply. I'd rather given up on getting an answer to this. :-) The essay is very interesting, too.
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