Mythology & Folklore
Amorgen's Song
Translated by Eleanor Hull, after John MacNeill (1913) · From The Poem-Book of the Gael (1913)
Amorgen sang:
I am the wind on the sea (for depth);
I am a wave of the deep (for weight);
I am the sound of the sea (for horror);
I am a stag of seven points (? for strength);
I am a hawk on a cliff (for deftness);
I am a tear of the sun (for clearness);
I am the fairest of herbs;
I am a boar for valour;
I am a salmon in a pool (i.e. the pools of knowledge);
I am a lake on a plain (for extent);
I am a hill of Poetry (and knowledge);
I am a battle-waging spear with trophies (for spoiling or
hewing);
I am a god, who fashions smoke from magic fire for a head (to
slay therewith);
(Who, but I, will make clear every question?)
Who, but myself, knows the assemblies of the stone-house on
the mountain of Slieve Mis?
Who (but the Poet) knows in what place the sun goes down?
Who seven times sought the fairy-mounds without fear?
Who declares them, the ages of the moon?
Who brings his kine from Tethra's house?
Who segregated Tethra's kine?
(For whom will the fish of the laughing sea be making welcome,
but for me?)
Who shapeth weapons from hill to hill (wave to wave, letter to
letter, point to point)?
Invoke, O people of the waves, invoke the satirist, that he may
make an incantation for thee!
I, the druid, who set out letters in Ogham;
I, who part combatants;
I, who approach the fairy-mounds to seek a cunning satirist, that
he may compose chants with me. I am the wind
on the sea.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Old Irish). “Amorgen's Song.” Translated by Eleanor Hull, after John MacNeill. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-irish/55/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Old Irish). “Amorgen's Song.” Translated by Eleanor Hull, after John MacNeill. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-irish/55/.
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