Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Buile Suibhne (Author: [unknown])

paragraph 67

    1. Mournful am I to-night,
      I am sad and wretched, my side is naked,
      if folk but knew me
      I have cause for lament.

    2. p.127

    3. Frost, ice, snow, and storm,
      forever scourging me,
      I without fire, without house,
      on the summit of Sliabh Eidhneach.
    4. I have a mansion and a good wife,
      everyone would say that I was a prince;
      'tis He who is Lord and King
      has wrought my downfall.
    5. Wherefore did God rescue me from the battle
      that no one was found there to slay me,
      rather than that I should go step by step
      with the hag of the mill?
    6. The hag of the mill at her house,
      Christ's curse on her soul!
      woe whosoever has trusted the hag!
      woe to whom she has given his dog's portion!
    7. Loingseachan was on my track
      throughout every wilderness in Erin,
      until he lured me from the tree
      what time he related my son's death.
    8. He carried me into the great house
      wherein the host was feasting,
      and bound me behind in the house (?)
      face to face with my first love.
    9. The people of the house without reproach
      playing games and laughing;
      I and my folk in the house
      leaping and jumping.

    10. p.129

    11. Were it not for the hag of the house,
      I would not have gone again into madness;
      she besought me by Christ of Heaven
      to leap for her a little while.
    12. I leaped a leap or two
      for the sake of the Heavenly Father Himself;
      the hag at her house said
      that even so could she herself leap.
    13. Once more I leaped out
      over the top of the fortress;
      swifter than smoke through a house
      was the flight of the hag.
    14. We wandered through all Erin,
      from Teach Duinn to Traigh Ruire,
      from Traigh Ruire to Benna Brain,
      but the hag I did not elude.
    15. Through plain and bog and hillside
      I escaped not from the slattern
      until she leaped with me the famous leap
      to the summit of Dun Sobairce.
    16. Thereafter I leaped down the dun,
      nor did I step back,
      I went out into the sea,
      yonder I left the hag.
    17. There came then to the strand
      the devil's crew to meet her,
      and they bore away her body;
      woe to the land of Erin in which it was buried!

    18. p.131

    19. Once as I passed over Sliabh Fuaid
      on a dark, black, gloomy night,
      on the hill I beheld five heads,
      having been cut off in one place.
    20. Said one of them of a sudden—
      harsh was the voice to me—
      a madman of Ulster, follow him
      so that you drive him before you to the sea.
    21. I sped before them along the path
      and I set not foot on ground;
      both goat-head and dog-head
      then began to curse.
    22. 'Tis right that I should get harm;
      many a night have I leaped a lake,
      many eyes of fond women
      have I made weep.