¶1] Give heed to thyself, Richard Ógg, do not forsake thine early disposition; if one might say so much to thee, it were more fitting to be as thou hast been.
¶2] Be, even as thou hast ever been, Richard son of Mac William; alas, if thou shouldst assume any other rank, thou gentle, supple scion of Mucroimhe.
¶3] Thou wouldst do ill, O pure face, to change that former name, considering all it hath won for thy bright hand, with it thou didst increase in prowess.
¶4] The mantle from which a man derives customary good health. O pleasant countenance, he loves that garment, thou sacred stag of Bregia's fair territory.
¶5] The place where one succeeds in increasing his wealth, that is the post on which he is stayed, he is not easily expelled beyond its borders.
¶6] The boy who is sent to his own land from the country in which he is reared, after his nursing therein, thou bright hand, the boy and its people are hard to separate.
¶7] Even thus it were not for thee to part from thy wonted title, thy well-known deeds, with every triumph that thou hadst of old, since from it was got all that thou didst win.
¶8] O son of Richard, gentle of heart, as for the foreign title thou hast got, never didst thou gain any advantage from it that the fame of the former title did not outdo.
¶9] Didst them get the headship of Flann's Plain it would not advantage thee, thou gallant form, in thy native place, to reign over Banbha by a foreign title.
¶10] Even I—it were not worth thy while for the sake of a hazardous and shortlived title, thou warrior who hauntest the border of Banbha, that I should not get an opportunity of speech with thee.
¶11] Am I not all the more emboldened to say to thee, though it should mean an eric leviable against me, thou scion ordained above the blood of Conn, that there is a reproach between us!
¶12] Not happily didst thou obtain the strange title, or the horrid outlandish right, about which I make bold against thee, thou diadem of Connacht's first assembly.
¶13] Whatever land in which I might chance to fall, under any of the kings of Ireland, even though I should not seek a price for my blood I should deserve vengeance from thee.
¶14] Didst thou fail me of thine own part, thou wouldst still owe, thou offspring of high-kings, to bear the part of the queen of Galway's field with those who should avenge our displeasure.
¶15] It was seldom for us and for you, blood of the luminously judging Burkes, to whom shall fall the guardianship of Ireland, to be contending with one another.
¶16] Any offences that our people ever used commit against Clanwilliam, ours would be the honorprice there for, thou powerfully attended champion of Man.
¶17] Unfitting is it, if thou follow the dealings of their poets with their princes, thou charmed diadem from the fairy mound of Knowth, that the eric of such as I should not be paid.
¶18] Even as the fragrant blossoms of Clanwilliam ever did, do thou, O forest tree of Bregia's height, about thy poet's reproach.
¶19] In the name of poetry we forbid thee to change thy title; thou shouldst renounce the new appellation rather than lose thy patrimony.
¶20] Let me find thee again in thine own shape, thou champion of the Plain of royal Niall; thou must make speed, give up thy strangeness towards us.
¶21] Thou wert the sinew of Banbha's land until thou didst get the outlandish title; the sheriffship of Conn's seed would not compensate for leaving sinewless the fair hunting-field of Íor.
¶22] Thou madest a deceptive bargain, an exchange not to be persisted in, thou triumphant champion of Bregia's hill, thou shalt regret the deed.
¶23] The worse for thee that thou didst not meet with the son of the French knight the day the new name was bestowed upon thee as a condition of receiving thy patrimony.
¶24] Once on a time the knight's son, feeling vigor in his arm, thought to explore the world, in hope to find marvels.
¶25] Despite his father's wish the youth set forth— what greater delusion?—active form, most steadfast of purpose, he would take no counsel to change.
¶26] A precious stone in the full size of his fist did his father entrust to the youth, wrought with exceeding nobleness was it, and dyed in gold.
¶27] Search the world from sea to sea with my gilded stone, said the father, bestow it, thou bright, soft-limbed fellow, upon him who is most foolish of purpose.
¶28] The young noble bade farewell to his kinsfolk, courteous, firm in exploit, he left his fatherland.
¶29] After his sweetly-speaking, pleasant, sprightly figure had travelled the world, the youth—what greater strength?—found himself in a certain strange land.
¶30] He sees from afar a multitude of people, a great royal city; he hears many cries from the people round the brightly-roofed, shapely castle.
¶31] He hears then, about the noble, stately city, on the hills hard by the enclosure, cries of sorrow and delight alternating.
¶32] Afar off, before drawing near the city, he enquired from the first man he met the reason for that assembly.
¶33] That man said: those people thou seest before thee, clan by clan, are the inhabitants of the land.
¶34] There is in this country, went on the young man, a strange, alarming custom; their king, even though he break not their law, reigns over them but for one year.
¶35] At the end of the year they leave him out on the sea, in a lonely island; alas for the king whose patrimony is the stately city thou seest.
¶36] Every king who has departed from us will spend his life from this on without friend or companion, see if there be anything more pitiful under heaven!
¶37] This assembly around thee are making a new king to-day, having banished the former one, a deed to pacify a multitude.
¶38] These hosts beside thee are choosing a new king, on account of nobility and birth, that is the cause of their gathering.
¶39] These cries thou hearest from all, this is their import, said the young man, 'a king being proclaimed by some of them, simultaneously with the lament for the former king.
¶40] The youth proceeded thereupon with his precious stone to meet them; the affable, ruddy, bright fellow remembered the admonition of his father.
¶41] That day into the hand of the king the youth— what greater contempt?—delivered the many-virtued, splendid stone, he earned thereby an upspringing of contention.
¶42] What is the reason thou hast put into my hand this precious stone, or dost thou wish to sell it, thou strange youth? said the high-king.
¶43] My father, said he, said to me; when thou hast searched the world, my son, bestow on the most surpassing simpleton the golden stone we have delivered to thee.
¶44] By thee, now—therefore hast thou received the stone—has been committed a deed the most foolish under heaven, O glistening, kindly eye.
¶45] Thy long life, and thine own inheritance, hast thou given, what senselessness, O noble, splendid form, for the sake of one year of supremacy.
¶46] The king paid heed to the pleasant speech of the young noble, and having found true guidance, he publicly renounced the kingship.
¶47] I would have given to thy bright face, if I had it, that man's stone, thou apple-blossom of Kincora, when thou didst change thy title.
¶48] Thou gavest, thou ruddy form, an abiding name in exchange for a temporary one: O fighter of Bregia's gaily-tinged hill, that was an imprudent deed of thine.
¶49] All that thou didst obtain from the beginning by that renowned jewel of a name was worth enough, thou star from Cormac's noble Plain, that thou shouldst not displace it.
¶50] With it, as Richard Óg, in youthful days long ago, thou hadst as profitable a time as ever man had, throughout the bright plain of the Gael.
¶51] Of yore thou wouldst spend a day in ravaging the shores of Bóromha, a day by the soft, shallow streams, of the Boyle, a day by the flats of Bearnas.
¶52] A day by the babbling streams of Bonet, another in Erris; a day by Tara of Meath, and by noble, ancient Loch Sewdy.
¶53] Equally didst thou explore the brinks of Forbhar, the borders of Sligo; from them as far as Croghan of Conn, and from Croghan-eastwards to the Shannon.
¶54] The track of thy steeds one would trace from Achill's point to Ushnagh, without a man swerving therefrom, from Bunduff to Loch Derg.
¶55] All would say, O kindly figure, that as 'son of Mac William' never, though thou borest no strange title, wert thou humbled in a fray{?).
¶56] The old name, O lord of Cong, well didst thou do to alter it did the fair curves of thy countenance find therefrom any reason to blush.
¶57] Those who know thee from childhood's years are challenged to say if thou didst ever meddle with anything on earth that would earn reproach for a man, thou lord of fair Loch Corrib.
¶58] Thou son of Joan, from the fairy mound of Trim, if there be variance between us, it should not be long persisted in, lest the fair curves of the cheek be scorched.