Poems and Translations from the Ancient Celtic Bards

TO THE SEA.

In words of truth will oft declare This continues the thought from the previous page: the old sailor will truthfully tell his stories.
How much his checkered days: a life marked by alternating periods of good and bad fortune have known
Of pleasure unalloyed: pure; not mixed with any other feeling by care,
And wretchedness and care anon anon: soon after; again;
And of thy ever-changing mood,
In many a winning hour will tell,
How furious now, and now subdued
By love and pity, prove thee well—
So deadly in thine influence—
So fair in thy magnificence—
So twined, through safety and through scaith: harm, injury, or damage,
With life, and loveliness, and death!

The mariner: a sailor or seaman, how blest with peace,
When winds and waves their tumults cease!
What time, becalmed, his bark bark: a poetic term for a small sailing ship must rest
Upon thy calm and tranquil breast,
In solitude, in summer time,
In some serene and orient clime: a region in the East, often associated in this period with exotic beauty,
Where western zephyrs: soft, gentle breezes, named after Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind oft repair repair: to frequent or go to a place
To rest their weary pinions pinions: wings; a poetic way of saying the wind has died down there!

That mariner, how light at heart
To watch successive suns depart,
As oft restoring to his view
The blest monotony of blue! The sailor finds comfort in the unchanging sight of the clear sky and calm sea.