An Old Woman of the Roads 15 A RANN OF EXILE NOR right, nor left, nor any road I see a comrade face, Nor word to lift the heart in me I hear in any place; They leave me, who pass by me, to my loneliness and care. Without a house to draw my step nor a fire that I might share! Ocón! before our people knew the scatt'ring of the dearth, Before they saw potatoes rot and melt black in the earth, I might have stood in Connacht, on the top of Cruchmaelinn, And all around me I would see the hundreds of my kin. A RANN OF WANDERING ON Saint Bride's day, when it comes, I will throw a sail on the lake, And in Cahir of my kindred on a fine day I'll awake, There the hounds will go before us, and make music of delight; And the fires will be piled up there, and the tables spread at night; O, my courage will be mounting up until my spirit's so, That within a mile of the World's Mouth I will be fain to go: Sure the scatt❜ring of the mist across leaves no half wish behind, And my heart was always lifted with the lifting of the wind. THE BEGGAR'S CHILD MAVOURNEEN, we'll go far away Around my neck you will lay Two tight little arms of brown. And what will we hear on the way? Mavourneen, we'll go far away THE BALLAD OF DOWNAL BAUN The moon-cradle's rocking and rocking, The moon-cradle out in the sky. The hound's in his loop at the fire, The bond-woman spins at the door; One rides on a horse through the court-yard: The sword-sheath drops on the floor. I My grandfather, Downal Baun, Had the dream that comes three times : In the house of Fargal More, And by Fargal's ash-strewn fire, When Downal had herded the kine in the waste, And had foddered them all in the byre; And he dreamt the dream when he lay Under sails that were spread to the main; When he took his rest amid dusky seas, |