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PAGE 129
The metre of this poem, which is also the metre of all the preceeding poems except the second in this romance, but does not occur elsewhere in the collection, may be illustrated by quoting the original of the fifth verse, which runs as follows:
Re funiud, re n-aidchi
Madit eicen airrthe,
Comrac dait re bairche,
Ni ba ban in gleo:
Ulaid acot gairmsiu,
Ra n-gabartar aillsiu,
Bud olc doib in taidbsiu
Rachthair thairsiu is treo.
Literal translation of the first two stanzas:
What has brought thee here, O Hound,
to fight with a strong champion?
crimson-red shall flow thy blood
over the breaths of thy steeds;
woe is thy journey:
it shall be a kindling of fuel against a house,
need shalt thou have of healing
if thou reach thy home (alive).
I have come before warriors
who gather round a mighty host-possessing prince,
before battalions, before hundreds,
to put thee under the water,
in anger with thee, and to slay thee
in a combat of hundreds of paths of battle,
so that thine shall the injury
as thou protectest thy head.
Line 2 of the fifth stanza, "Good is thy need of height."
Line 8 of the seventh stanza, "Without valour, without strength."
