And when Goll knew Finn to be watching for his life he made no attempt
to escape but stopped where he was, without food, without drink, and
he blinded with the sand that was blowing into his eyes.
And his wife came to a rock where she could speak with him, and she
called to him to come to her. “Come over to me,” she said; “and it
is a pity you to be blinded where you are, on the rocks of the waste
sea, with no drink but the salt water, a man that was first in every
fight. And come now to be sleeping beside me,” she said; “and in place
of the hard sea-water I will nourish you from my own breast, and it
is I will do your healing,” she said; “for it is seven years since
you wedded with me, and from that night to this night I never got a
hard word from you. And the gold of your hair is my desire for ever,”
she said, “and do not stop withering there like an herb in the winter-time,
and my heart black with grief within me.”
But Goll would not leave the spot where he was for all she could say.
“It is best as it is,” he said, “and I never took the advice of a woman
east or west, and I never will take it. And O sweet-voiced queen,”
he said, “what ails you to be fretting after me; and remember now your
silver and your gold, and your silks and stuffs, and remember the seven
hounds I gave you at Cruadh Ceirrge, and every one of them without
slackness till he has killed the deer. And do not be crying tears after
me, queen with the white hands,” he said; “but remember your constant
lover, Aodh, the son of the best woman of the world, that came out
from Spain asking for you, and that I fought at Corcar-an-Deirg. And
go to him now,” he said, “for it is bad when a woman is in want of
a good man.”
And he lay down on the rocks, and at the end of twelve days he died.
And his wife keened him there, and made a great lamentation for her
husband that had such a great name, and that was the second best of
the Fenians of Ireland.
(Lady Augusta Gregory)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, World Poems, Place Poems, Name Poems, Kings & Queens Poems, Gold Poems, Sons Poems, Woman Poems, Water Poems, Hair PoemsBased on Keywords: winter-time, slackness, sea-water, fenians, keened, aodh, goll