THE SONG OF DEIRDRA
king byrge and his brothers
and
other ballads

by
GEORGE BORROW

London:
printed for private circulation

1913

Copyright in the United States of America
by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for Clement Shorter.

THE SONG OF DEIRDRA

Farewell, grey Albyn, much loved land,
   I ne’er shall see thy hills again;
Upon those hills I oft would stand
   And view the chase sweep o’er the plain.

’Twas pleasant from their tops I ween
   To see the stag that bounding ran;
And all the rout of hunters keen,
   The sons of Usna in the van.

The chiefs of Albyn feasted high,
   Amidst them Usna’s children shone;
And Nasa kissed in secrecy
   The daughter fair of high Dundron.

To her a milk-white doe he sent,
   With little fawn that frisked and played
And once to visit her he went,
   As home from Inverness he strayed.

The news was scarcely brought to me
   When jealous rage inflamed my mind;
I took my boat and rushed to sea,
   For death, for speedy death, inclined.

But swiftly swimming at my stern
   Came Ainlie bold and Ardan tall;
Those faithful striplings made me turn
   And brought me back to Nasa’s hall.

Then thrice he swore upon his arms,
   His burnished arms, the foeman’s bane,
That he would never wake alarms
   In this fond breast of mine again.

Dundron’s fair daughter also swore,
   And called to witness earth and sky,
That since his love for her was o’er
   A maiden she would live and die.

Ah did she know that slain in fight,
   He wets with gore the Irish hill,
How great would be her moan this night,
   But greater far would mine be still.

THE DIVER
a ballad translated from the german

“Where is the man who will dive for his King,
In the pool as it rushes with turbulent sweep?
A cup from this surf-beaten jetty I fling,
And he who will seek it below in the deep,
And will bring it again to the light of the day,
As the meed of his valour shall bear it away.

“Now courage, my knights, and my warriors bold,
For, one, two, and three, and away it shall go—”
He toss’d, as he said it, the goblet of gold
Deep, deep in the howling abysses below.—
“Where is the hero who ventures to brave
The whirl of the pool, and the break of the wave?”

The steel-coated lancemen, and nobles around,
Spoke not, but they trembled in silent surprise,
And pale they all stood on the cliff’s giddy bound,
And no one would venture to dive for the prize.
“Three times have I spoke, but no hero will spring
And dive for the goblet, and dive for the King.”

But still they were silent and pale as before,
Till a brave son of Eirin, in venturous pride,
Dash’d forth from the lancemen’s trembling corps
And canted his helm, cast his mantle aside,
While spearman, and noble, and lady, and knight,
Gazed on the bold stripling