Post by Blackbird on Jul 10, 2006 16:48:56 GMT -1
Bit off topic, but thought you all might enjoy this.
Scathach has always been a heroine of mine and I've always wanted to write my own version of this. Now seemed to be the right time, no idea why. If you read the Kinsella version, you'll see that not much of this is actually my own work... I pretty much took his translation and gave it some scansion.
And yes, it has a tune
Scathach’s address to CuChulainn
(after Thomas Kinsella)
I salute you, weary after triumph
Battle eager, icy-hearted
Take your comfort where you may find it
Sleep sound my blooded hound, safe in song.
Stand you lonely, stands my hound in danger
Ringed in red and thronged with envy
Straight sword stabs the roar of distant battle
Reddened with my hound’s own gore
Horned herds hemmed up, driven out of Ulster
Five tear-sodden days, one against an army
Bleeds my hound a torrent upon shields
Bitter wounds on fields of red
Crows are fattened, sated on the harvest
On chopped flesh the ravens feed
Sweet Setanta’s red runs like a river
Body wasted yet still he stands
Calling up the warriors to slaughter
With his stabbing red spiked spear
Breaks upon them, Ulster’s mighty champion
Stabbing straight upon the plain
Let him come on, brave hound Setanta
Let the white roar to the dun
Let Queen Medb fight fierce with her lover
Let Setanta come on again
Sword stroke sweeping swathes through the forest
Spear spike salmon leaps the flood
Shake your weakness, Ulster’s mighty champion!
Rise once more and seize your arms
Hound of Ulster, raider without pity
Take your warlike wounding shield,
Red tipped sword and strong curved spear
Dyed in gathering pools of blood
Long your enemies shiver by their fires
Men of Alba will know your name
Sweet my daughter, shadow to your brightness,
Pities my hound, my CuChulainn
Thirty years are yours, Setanta.
Keep your valour, keep your strength
Short in time but long in singing
I salute you my little hound.
Scathach has always been a heroine of mine and I've always wanted to write my own version of this. Now seemed to be the right time, no idea why. If you read the Kinsella version, you'll see that not much of this is actually my own work... I pretty much took his translation and gave it some scansion.
And yes, it has a tune
Scathach’s address to CuChulainn
(after Thomas Kinsella)
I salute you, weary after triumph
Battle eager, icy-hearted
Take your comfort where you may find it
Sleep sound my blooded hound, safe in song.
Stand you lonely, stands my hound in danger
Ringed in red and thronged with envy
Straight sword stabs the roar of distant battle
Reddened with my hound’s own gore
Horned herds hemmed up, driven out of Ulster
Five tear-sodden days, one against an army
Bleeds my hound a torrent upon shields
Bitter wounds on fields of red
Crows are fattened, sated on the harvest
On chopped flesh the ravens feed
Sweet Setanta’s red runs like a river
Body wasted yet still he stands
Calling up the warriors to slaughter
With his stabbing red spiked spear
Breaks upon them, Ulster’s mighty champion
Stabbing straight upon the plain
Let him come on, brave hound Setanta
Let the white roar to the dun
Let Queen Medb fight fierce with her lover
Let Setanta come on again
Sword stroke sweeping swathes through the forest
Spear spike salmon leaps the flood
Shake your weakness, Ulster’s mighty champion!
Rise once more and seize your arms
Hound of Ulster, raider without pity
Take your warlike wounding shield,
Red tipped sword and strong curved spear
Dyed in gathering pools of blood
Long your enemies shiver by their fires
Men of Alba will know your name
Sweet my daughter, shadow to your brightness,
Pities my hound, my CuChulainn
Thirty years are yours, Setanta.
Keep your valour, keep your strength
Short in time but long in singing
I salute you my little hound.