Gaoir nam Ban Muileach – en

Lyrics

The wailing of the Mull women is painful for me,
as they weep and lament,
Sir Iain being neither in London
nor on a visit in France;
heavy the burden that made you stay behind,
for the cause of our woe
is that you did not leave with the ships:
you were young when you earned honour on the battlefield.

King of the princes
who were brought up in plenty,
we have paid dearly for you
since the day the trouble began.
The banishment of Sir Ailean's only son
from his landed rights
by force and compulsion -
It is this springtime journey that has galled me.

Though you were uncertain for a long time,
no fault was to be found with you;
as for the leaders,
you did not deign to go to do them homage.
Noble lion most courteous,
alas that the size of the burden
you had to bear overwhelmed you,
and that there was no physician to drive off death from you.

The Maclean chief of the mail-coats
lying in the vault,
in a bed of earth
in an unending sleep,
while your people were being hounded to death:
though they did not get enough time
to let them carry their arms,
they still made a rushing assault on the enemy.

It was on Tuesday before daybreak
that our plight was unhappy,
since the day the Maclean chief died
and the progeny of our house declined;
great is my loss since Samhain
and since last Saint Bride's Day:
I am a poor wretch of a woman,
with no clan chief either of my father's side nor of my mother's.

You were Maclean of the routs,
and it was no human power that took you from us:
had it been such, the men with steel helmets
would have risen round your shoulder,
men who would sweep away all they encountered,
as harsh cold rain-showers do.
Sad is all the news which has been received
since the day your host assembled in Aros.

Disaster has come upon us:
we are without Sir Iain,
and the Macleans have been driven out
and are without either feathers or brood,
like plucked geese.
There is no point in telling of it,
for they are among their enemies,
though they were never involved in treachery.

Alas, I am devastated
that they did not bring you over
to go ashore on the Ealadh,
to go under shelter in the rock,
to the churchyard of the monks
where your kindred lie
with your father and grandfather,
and where we could gather round your cairn.