Once Diarmuid son of Donn grandson of Duibne, was
- Cold, cold!
Cold tonight is the broad plain of Lurg,
Higher the snow than the mountain-range,
The deer cannot get at their food.
- Cold till Doom!
The storm has spread over all:
A river is each furrow upon the slope,
Each ford a full pool.- A great sea is each loch, which is full,
A full loch is each pool.
Horses do not get over Ross-ford,
No more do two feet get there.- The fishes of Inis Fáil are a-roaming,
There is no strand that a wave does not beat
In the lands there is no house visible,
Not a bell is heard, no crane talks.- The hounds of Cuan-wood find not
Rest nor sleep in the dwelling of hounds,
The little wren cannot find
Shelter in her nest on Lon-slope.- On the little company of the birds has broken forth
Keen wind and cold ice,
The blackbird cannot get a lee to her liking,
Shelter at the side in Cuan-woods.- Cosy our pot on the hook,
Crazy the hut on Lon-slope:
The snow has smoothed the wood here,
Toilsome to climb by kine-horned staves.- Glenn Rigi's ancient bird
From the bitter wind gets grief,
Great her misery and her pain,
The ice will get into her mouth.- From flock and from down to rise
Take it to heart!were folly for thee:
Ice in heaps on every ford,
That is why I keep saying cold!
The old woman went out after that. As for Grainne, when she noticed that the old woman had gone, she put out her hand on the garment that was about her, and put it on her tongue, and found the taste of salt on her cloak. Woe, oh Diarmaid! she cried, the old woman has betrayed thee. And arise quickly and take thy warrior's dress about thee! Diarmaid did so, and went out, and Grainne with him. Then they beheld the warrior-king with the fianna around him coming towards them. Diarmaid glanced (?) aside on the sea around Erinn, and saw a skiff in the shelter of the harbour near him. He and Grainne with him went into it. One man was awaiting them in the little boat with a beautiful raiment about him, with a broad-braided golden-yellow mantle over his shoulder behind. That was Oengus of the Brug, the fosterfather of Diarmaid, who had come to rescue him from the night-watch (?) which he was in from Finn and the fianna of Erinn.