The Sweetness of Nature

This is one of the songs of the mad king, Suibhne (Sweeney) from a
twelfth-century romance, the material of which goes back to the eighth
century. In this poem Suibhne is flying from the battlefield, driven mad
by the sight of the broken bodies. To me the whole romance seems to
have some obscure connection with the Hamlet legend.

Endlessly over the water
  Birds of the Bann are singing;
Sweeter to me their voices
  Than any churchbell’s ringing.

Over the plain of Moyra
  Under the heels of foemen
I saw my people broken
  As flax is scutched by women.

But the cries I hear by Derry
  Are not of men triumphant;
I hear their calls in the evening,
  Swans calm and exultant.

I hear the stag’s belling
  Over the valley’s steepness;
No music on the earth
  Can move me like its sweetness.

Christ, Christ hear me!
  Christ, Christ of Thy meekness!
Christ, Christ love me!
  Sever me not from Thy sweetness!


Source: O'Connor, Frank (tr); Kings, Lords, & Commons: An Anthology
from the Irish; 1962; London; Macmillan & Co; p.17