Amergin

Life
Poet associated with Gaelic invasion myths and supposed author of the lines: ‘I speak for Erin, / Sailed and fertile sea. / Fertile fruitful mountains, / Fruitful moist woods, / Mosit overflowing lochs, / Flowing hillside springs.’

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Works
Jan de Fouw, trans., The Song of Amergin, trans. with foreword by Michael O’Siadhail and afterword by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (Dublin: Wolfhound Press 2000), 40pp.

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Quotations
“The Alphabet Calendar of Amergin”: ‘I am a stag: of seven tines / I am a flood: across a plain / I am a wind: on a deep lake / I am a tear: the Sun lets fall / I am a hawk: above the cliff / I am a thorn: beneath the nail / I am a wonder: among flowers / I am a wizard: who but I / Sets the cool head aflame with smoke? (Trans. Robert Graves, in John Montague, ed., The Faber Book of Irish Verse, London: Faber & Faber 1974, p.45.)

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