And Emer took the head of Cuchulain in her hands, and she washed it
clean, and put a silk cloth about it, and she held it to her breast,
and she began to cry heavily over it, and she made this complaint:
Och, head! Ochone, O head! you gave death to great heroes, to many
hundreds; my head will lie in the same grave, the one stone will be
made for both of us.
Och, hand! Ochone, hand, that was once gentle. It is often it was put
under my head; it is dear that hand was to me.
Dear mouth! Ochone, kind mouth that was sweet-voiced telling stories;
since the time love first came on your face, you never refused either
weak or strong.
Dear the man, dear the man, that would kill the whole of a great army;
dear his cold bright hair, and dear his bright cheeks!
Dear the king, dear the king, that never gave a refusal to any; thirty
days it is to-night since my body lay beside your body.
Och, two spears! Ochone, two spears! Och, shield! Och, deadly sword!
Let them be given, to Conall of the battles; there was never any wage
given the like of that.
I am glad, I am glad, Cuchulain of Muirthemne, I never brought red
shame on your face, for any unfaithfulness against you.
Happy are they, happy are they, who will never hear the cuckoo again
for ever, now that the Hound has died from us.
I am carried away like a branch on the stream; I will not bind up my
hair to-day. From this day I have nothing to say that is better than
Ochone! “And oh! my love,” she said, “we were often in one another’s
company, and it was happy for us; for if the world had been searched
from the rising of the sun to sunset, the like would never have been
found in one place, of the Black Sainglain and the Grey of Macha, and
Laeg the chariot-driver, and myself and Cuchulain. And it is breaking
my heart is in my body, to be listening to the pity and the sorrowing
of women and men, and the harsh crying of the young men of Ulster
keening Cuchulain.” And after that Emer bade Conall to make a wide,
very deep grave for Cuchulain; and she laid herself down beside her
gentle comrade, and she put her mouth to his mouth, and she said: “Love
of my life, my friend, my sweetheart, my one choice of the men of the
earth, many is the woman, wed or unwed, envied me till to-day; and
now I will not stay living after you.”
(Lady Augusta Gregory)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, Life Poems, World Poems, Time Poems, War & Peace Poems, Faces Poems, Youth Poems, Friendship Poems, Place Poems, Kings & Queens PoemsBased on Keywords: ulster, ochone, cuchulain, unfaithfulness, emer, conall, muirthemne, macha