Love

Grania's Song to Rouse Diarmuid from Sleep

by Anonymous (Old Irish) c. 8th–12th century

Translated by Lady Gregory (1918) · From The Kiltartan Poetry Book (1918)

Love

The stag to the east is not asleep, he does not stop from bellowing; though he is in the woods of the blackbirds, sleep is not in his mind; the hornless doe is not asleep, crying after her speckled fawn; she is going over the bushes, she does not sleep in her home.

The cuckoo is not asleep, the thrush is not asleep, the tops of the trees are a noisy place; the duck is not asleep, she is made ready for good swimming; the bog-lark is not asleep tonight on the high stormy bogs; the sound of her clear voice is sweet; she is not sleeping between the streams.

This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.

MLA

Anonymous (Old Irish). “Grania's Song to Rouse Diarmuid from Sleep.” Translated by Lady Gregory. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-irish/149/.

Chicago

Anonymous (Old Irish). “Grania's Song to Rouse Diarmuid from Sleep.” Translated by Lady Gregory. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-irish/149/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Anonymous (Old Irish)