T. W. Rolleston

“ Sea-riders, strong for a day of wind;
And oh, what a song shall the bright wind sing us
When clear of the shallows and clear of the sedge,
While the narrowing stream and the ebb-tide swing us
’Twixt sea and mountain to Wicklow Bridge! ”

“ In the fragrant depths of the woodland, and died with the dying day.
No spirits in truth! yet it seem’d, as awhile in dreams I stood,
That a music more than earthly had passed through the dark’ning wood.
And it seemed that the Day to the Morrow bequeathed in that solemn strain
The whole world’s hope and labour, its love, and its ancient pain. ”

“ Except for inscriptions, this contemporary narrative of the Battle of Salamis is the earliest piece of written Greek history extant. The splendour and force of the original make it one of the greatest pieces of battle-narrative in the world, and defy adequate rendering. But it is noticeable that not only is the description ablaze with the passion of war, but the plan and tactics of the fight, which was probably even a more decisive event in world-history than that of Marathon, are given with a map-like precision and clearness. ”

“ Each claims to be the true and only true religion. The claim cannot be true of more than one of them. Which of them, in his inmost soul, does Nathan hold to be justified? That he may have time to collect his thoughts, Saladin leaves the Jew alone for a while before he answers. Nathan, who does not yet know Saladin, is at first very doubtful of the bona fides of the Musalman prince in making this inquiry of him. ”

“ Nathan is a Jew, famed for his wealth and for his wisdom, living in Jerusalem at the time of the Third Crusade. In the following scene he has just been summoned to the presence of the Sultan Saladin. He supposes that a loan of money is the Sultan’s object. Instead of this, he finds that it is his reputed wisdom which has gained him the interview. Nathan is a man who cannot have taken his beliefs in spiritual things without examination; here, then, says Saladin, are three faiths contending for mastery, the Jewish, the Christian, and the Mahommedan. ”

“ For ’then’ he’ll say, ’why not a Musalman?’
Let me think.... Ha! I have it now. That saves me!
Not children only can one satisfy
With fables.... He is coming. Let him come!
Enter Saladin.
Saladin
I have not come too quickly? Thou hast brought
Thy meditation to an end? Then speak!
None hears but I.
[56]
Nathan
Nay, all the world may hear
For aught I care!
Saladin
So clear and confident
Is Nathan in his wisdom? Ha! this I deem
To be a sage indeed! Nothing to hide,
Never to palter—but to stake his life,
His blood, his goods, and all, upon the truth!
Nathan
Yea ... ”

“ In whirling dance forever.
What are the thoughts that smooth her brows
To such content, I wonder,
While clangs about our silent group
The railroad’s rhythmic thunder?
[26]
But now more slow the landscape moves—
We reach a little station—
And how the maiden’s face has changed,
Lit up with expectation!
A brother, with his sister’s eyes,
Brown-cheeked from sun and heather,
Awaits her; and with half a sigh
I watch them leave together.
The heavy train regathers speed,
And minute after minute
The country station drops behind—
Some spell is surely in it! ”

“ Where the rope-maze crosses from quay to quay,
You’ll need your head and your arm I warrant,
To fight the eddies and find your way.
There lifts your prow with the long pulsation
[8] That tells how near us the glad seas are!
There lifts the heart with the old elation,
To meet the surf at the harbour-bar! ”

“ Saladin
Nathan, Nathan,
The thousand thousand years are not yet done!
Not mine that judgment-seat! Enough—farewell!
But henceforth be my friend.
[6] The concluding twenty lines of this translation have appeared in the writer’s “Life of Lessing” (Walter Scott) . ”

“ Saladin
Yes, yes, I hear!
Come, will thy fable soon be told?
[59]
Nathan
’Tis told
Already, for the rest is evident.
Scarce is the father dead when comes each son
Bearing his ring, and claims to be the lord
And ruler of the house! What follows then? ”

“ Battle-banners of the Gael, that in Kieran’s plain of crosses
Now their final hosting keep.
And in Clonmacnois they laid the men of Teffia,
And right many a lord of Breagh;
Deep the sod above Clan Creidè and Clan Connall,
Kind in hall and fierce in fray.
Many and many a son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter
In the red earth lies at rest;
Many a blue eye of Clan Colman the turf covers,
Many a swan-white breast.
[48]
SONG OF FINN IN
PRAISE OF MAY [5] From the Irish.
May Day! delightful day!
Bright colours play the vales along. ”

“ Thanks are due to Messrs. Harrap & Co., London, for permission to include in this volume three poems which are introduced into the writer’s forthcoming prose book, “The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland.” The poems in question are Cois na Teineadh, Midir the Proud, and the Song of Finn. Some others have appeared in the Spectator, the Irish Homestead, and the Westminster Gazette, to the editors of which acknowledgments are due.
[5]
CONTENTS
[6]
TRANSLATIONS
[7]
SEA SPRAY
What shall we do with our day? ”

“ His grave is still shown in that most beautiful and pathetic of Irish ruins. Some accounts have it that his remains were afterwards transferred to Clonmacnois by the Shannon.
[21]
SONG OF MAELDUIN
There are veils that lift, there are bars that fall,
There are lights that beckon and winds that call—
Goodbye!
There are hurrying feet, and we dare not wait ”