Unknown author

Edited by John T. Gilbert

 p.190

An Síogaí Rómhánach

1. I tell of a vision—no untrue tale;
   It was seen by my own eyes;
   It was heard with my own ears—
   No part of it shall be concealed.5 
   On a morning, I, alone,
   At Home on the Golden Hill of Cephas,
   Lay on a tomb-stone, shedding tears,
   Grieving over the grave of the noble Gaels.
   Beneath slept two, liberal of gifts—10 
   Deeply would they have mourned my condition—
   The great Earl of Tir Eoghain, land of the brave Mall,
   And O Donel, of the keen gold-hilted swords.
   As I lay oppressed with grief,
   Whom did I see descend from the summit15 
   But a white-necked, pearly maiden,
   Who would have won the prize from Venus for beauty,
   And from Minerva for form and grace.
   Elegantly traced were her slender eyebrows,
   Gold shone through her tresses,20 
   Snow and flame mingled in her cheek.
   On that spot to me she said,
   In a voice more melodious than harps,
   “Depart from the grave of the mighty chiefs;”
   “Long did they mourn—slowly broke their hearts.”25 
   Then, full of emotion and agony,
   She uttered a wail most mournful,
   Sad enough to draw tears from clerics,
   Even from stones—if possible.
   Then, wailing, she uplifted her arms,30 
   'And, with eyes raised to heaven,
   Addressed the King of the sky
   In these doleful words:
   O great God! I pray thee to hear me
   Is it sinful to ask a brief question? p.19135 
   Difficult seemingly to the learned,
   But to Thee all is plain.
   Uninformed I am and ignorant;
   But if all mankind
   Inherit the sin of the first man,40 
   Our father Adam, misled by Eve,
   Why should punishment be inflicted
   Most heavily on one race?
   Why should lowly slaves be freed?
   Why should those once free be now enslaved?45 
   Why are the poor and innocent hanged,
   And the guilty left joyful?
   Why are not heretics extirpated?
   Why are the faithful persecuted by evil-doers?
   Why are not Lutherans punished, 50 
   While true believers are done to death?
   Why are the lambs left bleeding?
   Why are wolves allowed to prey on the flocks?
   By what justice is Erin cast down?
   Why are her groans unheeded?55 
   Why are not the Gaels exalted?
   A people who at all times obeyed God.
   Since the advent of Holy Patrick,
   With the faith to Inis Ealga,
   Neiher reverse, nor pain, nor affliction,60 
   Nor foreign might, nor sore oppression
   Could take Christ's faith from the hearts of the Gaels.
   Their light was brilliant as the sun—
   It glittered as an angel,
   On it there fell neither blemish, stain, nor spot,65 
   Throughout Fodhla, on the sons of Miled.
   Alas, O Christ! this is true indeed.
   What dost thou require of us? Wilt thou not listen?
   Or is it thy will never again to look upon us—
   Upon us, who have always adored thee,70 
   Now punished unjustly under the Saxons.
   Surely, it was the Saxon brood, low
   And treacherous, which deserved to have been forsaken.
   They cast off the yoke of the Church
   And scoffed at the Mother of the only Son;75 
   They would not submit to God,
   But destroyed faith with venomous heresy.
   I desire not to name Henry the King,
   Who foully put away his wife
   For Ann Boleyn—his own daughter—80 
   And left the Church for Luther's teaching.
   With him I class Elizabeth,
   Who would not wed, but abandoned virtue, And wrought treachery on many.
   She made a wilderness of Eber's plain,
   And extirpated its men and women.85 
   Mary Stuart she put to death:
   To Elizabeth succeeded James, p.192
   Omen of desolation to Felim's land.
   He trampled down their race and stock;
   Their lands he measured with cords;90 
   Poem He put Saxons in the place of Gaels,
   And set up false religion in the churches.
   Soon after him came Charles—
   Like his father in deceit and falsehood.
   Unjust was his yoke on Leath Chuin.95 
   Every man in Leath Mogha was persecuted.
   He took from them their rents and rights,
   Their wealth, their sons, their weapons, their armour,
   With a third of their land and titles.
   It was he who required them to forsake God.100 
   He forbade parish mass-hearing;
   He proscribed the Gaelic tongue,
   And commanded Saxon speech for all.
   By him were mass and music prohibited.
   Every horror has been wrought upon Erin;105 
   A perpetual deadly curse is rained upon her;
   An atom of what was done would have been woe enough.
   I know not of the cause
   For which they were first oppressed.
   It was God's will to eschew this prince110 
   And those who did him homage.
   Parliamentarians, vile boors,
   Beheaded, with a keen sword,
   This fair-headed, evil King.
   During their time Erin awoke,115 
   And in Ulster uprose the first man—
   Mac Guire, of heroic Fenian race,
   And Mac Mahon, as in former time,
   Two valiant, true-hearted lions,
   Who prized not worldly wealth;120 
   With treacherous strangers they treated not.
   Until they together shed
   Their blood in crimsom pools,
   For love of the faith which they would not forsake.
   Not through dislike do I pass by Felim125 
   The red-white, curled, noble youth,
   Who made adventurers yell,
   And wrested spoil from niggard Scots.
   Then it was the hero set sail
   From Spain, in full array.130 
   The pure Owen Roe of the death-dealing host,
   Champion of spoils son of valiant Art,
   Grandson of Cormac the great O'Neill.
   Victorious hand, never worsted in fight,
   To this truth myself I pledge.135 
   On many a danger did Owen look
   From his first days of childhood
   Till Christ ended his career. p.193
   To attest this I appeal to God
   And to Spain, now full of grief for him;140 
   And to Almaigne, the favored of Caesar;
   And to France, which bravely fought him;
   And to the Low Countries, which are sad without him;
   And to the clans of Miled in the Kingdom of Erin.
   One half of Owen's deeds I cannot tell:145 
   To the province of Ulster he brought relief in distress;
   He mastered the strangers there,
   And swiftly drove away Leslie;
   He set on foot Montgomery of the fetters
   He scared the bare Scots;150 
   He wrought confusion on their people
   And broke down the fort of the false Moore.
   The brave man leagured Dublin city
   And laid waste its country.
   In Meath, of the treacherous Foreign Gaels,155 
   At Portlester, he slew hundreds.
   He struck terror into Birra and Nenagh,
   And from thence to Thpmond of Eber.
   He carried away spoil, in the face of the foe,
   From Inchiquin, over the mountain top.160 
   He brought to submission all Waterford
   And Duncannon of the arid channels,
   Loch Garman of sharp weapons,
   Ross and the fort of Ben Edair.
   By force he reduced Kilkenny.165 
   Mighty were his arms by the Shannon side,
   By the Abhan mdr, by the Nore,
   And by the rapid-rushing Barrow.
   On the banks of Suir his troops were busy,
   And from thence again to Erne.170 
   He held revels in the rath of Meadhbh,
   From Athlone he exacted fealty,
   And thence westward to distant Beara.
   He smashed the walls at Baile Seamuis,
   He made Sligo tremble at his glance,175 
   And by him the strangers were bound.
   By Mac Duach was told the pleasing news—
   In every harbour of Erin,
   It was said, declared, predicted, read,
   That the strangers had been suppressed.180 
   Owen the red,
   borne on the shoulders of the Gaels,
   A noble hero, lamb-like, airy,
   Standard-bearing, victorious, dauntless, blow-dealing,
   Preying, searching, protecting, wounding,185 
   Comely, curled, poetic, humane,
   Acute, diligent, plundering, festive,
   An active hero, a ready soldier,
   Keen bladed, swift, agile, bounding:
   A majestic, unsullied, stately cavalier, p.194190 
   Mighty, proud, haughty, armoured,
   Law-giving, foraging, routing, advancing,
   Loving, pleasing, social, prosperous.
   Let all know that if this bird had lived
   The flock would not be in the Phoenix nest,195 
   Neither strangers nor Cromwell would have been obeyed
   As they have been since the hour of his death.
   Although it is my grief that he has died,
   His death to me is no cause of woe,
   Since his days were shortened not by strangers,200 
   But by God, who was pleased to free him.
   Soon after him came with vigour
   The warlike lion, Bishop Emer,
   The man of steady, active head,
   Who excelled all in learning.205 
   The most upright-hearted of the Gaels.
   He broke the spirit and the law of the strangers,
   Stripped them of authority in Erin,
   And scattered the hosts of Charles.
   Woe for me was the shortening of his days,210 
   Not less my grief that he was Bishop of Down.
   Alas for the nobles of Ulster—the heroic champions;
   Alas for Henry Ruadh, inheritor of valour.
   Mac Guire, the Gaelic-hearted,
   And O'Cahan, the bounding hound,215 
   The hero of the routs, Felim, son of Tuathal,
   My blessing on them—I cannot name them.
   I am wretched, forsaken, persecuted.
   I ask again, oh mighty Son,
   Where be the prophecies of Holy Patrick?220 
   Of Berchan, or gentle Senan,
   Of Ciaran of Cluain, obeyed by all,
   Of Colum Cille, the cheerful-faced;
   Of Cailin, of Ultan, the laborious,
   Of Colman Ele, whose food was the green grass.225 
   Alas, alas, bitter is my sorrow,
   My cry, my wail, my weakness,
   My woe, my groan, my darkness, my acute grief,
   My omen, my ruin, my madness, my anguish.
   A third of their afflictions I know not:230 
   The Gaels are being wasted and deeply wounded,
   Subjugated, slain, extirpated
   By plague, by famine, by war, by persecution.
   It was God's justice not to free them.
   They went not together hand in hand.235 
   The land was not firmly united,
   And the clerics were ever divided.
   Some abounded in falsehood,
   Some aided the heretic horde,
   Many submitted to the strangers,240 
   Some craftily deceived the Gaels,
   Some affected to espouse the cause of Erin
   While in secret they ever deserted her, p.195
   Some feigned to oppose the strangers
   To whom they stealthily adhered.245 
   My curses shall ever rain on such clerics,
   And on their people till the judgment day—
   On those who loved not each other—
   Who made a wilderness of Eber's plain,
   Who rejected the noble Gaels,250 
   And on whom fell the curse of the last Nuncio,
   John Baptista, Archbishop of Fermo,
   Sole Legate of the Pope in Erin.
   This is the cause of my tears;
   This is the cause which has truly grieved me;255 
   This has cast a shadow on the sun's light;
   This has clouded the sky with gloom and terror;
   This has cast Europe under an eclipse,
   And put Christ's faith once more under a cloud;
   My curse for ever on the wolfish race.260 
   Yet I will not abandon hope,
   Since of Miled's stock there still survives
   Hugh the swarthy, sprung from heroic sires.
   The seers foretold that he
   Shall scatter the strangers far and wide.265 
   Still live the red-haired, fair-faced Felim,
   And Colonel Fearghal, the valiant hero,
   And Aed O'Brian—equal to hundreds—
   And O'Cavanagh, and the brave O'Tuathal.
   Still live the yet unvanquished bands—270 
   O'Ruarcs, O'llaghalliaghs, and O'Briens,
   O'Kellys, not weak in war,
   O'Conors, cavaliers renowned in story.
   And the Mac Carthys, unstained by treachery,
   The Dalcais of mighty deeds,—O'Briens,275 
   Sprung from Eremon and great Eber;
   And the men of Munster—land beloved of bards—
   And the Ulstermen, victors in a hundred fights,
   O'Maoileachlainn, the bounding hero,
   O'Maelmuaidh, the valiant leader,280 
   Mac Cochlan of the white-walled forts,
   O'Diomsaidh, the rushing wolf,
   O'Carrol, with the soldiery of Eile,
   O'Sullevan, from Beara's plain,
   O'More, O'Floinn, O'Doinn of the hills.285 
   Soon will the heroes combine;
   And, united hand in hand,
   They will vanquish the strangers at Saingel,
   And rout the foreigners at Mullaghmaistin.
   Then none shall league with the Saxon,290 
   Nor with the half naked Scot.
   Then shall Erin be freed from settlers,
   Then shall perish the Saxon tongue.
   The Gaels in arms shall triumph
   Over the crafty, thieving, false sect of Calvin. p.196295 
   Their nobles shall bear sway over unbelievers,
   And scatter the brood of Luther.
   True faith shall be uncontrolled;
   Poem The people shall be rightly taught
   By friars, bishops, priests, and clerics,300 
   And everlasting peace shall dwell in Erin.
   pray God—may He deign to hear—
   I pray Jesus—who sees all—
   And the holy Spirit with—one accord—
   Mary, our Mother, and Patrick of the shining tooth,305 
   Colum of my heart, and holy Brigid,
   That the Gaels may band together
   And achieve the great exploit,
   To drive out the strangers and set Erin free.
   Here ended the beauteous maiden310 
   Whom I have described to you.
   Suddenly, clapping her hands
   She ascended swiftly to the clouds.
   Thus she left me all alone—
   Prostrate on the tombstone of the Gaels—315 
   Without voice, vigour, or motion,
   Full of woe, affrighted at her tidings.
   I declare the age of the Lord in the year
   When I stood in Rome, a tearful stranger,
   One thousand with a half five tens and one hundred.320 
   Thus ends my story to you.
   May consolation come to the maiden who last night stood at O'Neill's grave
   With anguished heart, wailing for the noble Gael.
   Though I, miserable and weak, was deserted by her,
   Deep is my love for her and for those of whom she spoke.

@incollection{T402570A,
  editor 	 = {John T. Gilbert},
  title 	 = {The Irish Vision at Rome},
  booktitle 	 = {A Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland from 1641 to 1652},
  address 	 = {Dublin },
  publisher 	 = {for the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society},
  date 	 = {1880},
  volume 	 = {3},
  pages 	 = {190–196}
}
 T402570A.bib