THE KILTARTAN POETRY BOOK

PROSE TRANSLATIONS FROM THE IRISH

BY LADY GREGORY




_Introduction_



I


If in my childhood I had been asked to give the name of an Irish poem,
I should certainly have said "Let Erin remember the days of old," or
"Rich and rare were the gems she wore"; for although among the
ornamental books that lay on the round drawingroom table, the only
one of Moore's was _Lalla Rookh_, some guest would now and then
sing one of his melodies at the piano; and I can remember vexing or
trying to vex my governess by triumphant mention of Malachi's collar
of gold, she no doubt as well as I believing the "proud invader" it
was torn from to have been, like herself, an English one. A little
later I came to know other verses, ballads nearer to the tradition
of the country than Moore's faint sentiment. For a romantic love of
country had awakened in me, perhaps through the wide beauty of my home,
from whose hillsides I could see the mountain of Burren and Iar Connacht,
and at sunset the silver western sea; or it maybe through the half