The Scribe in the Woods: An Early Irish Poem


    Over me green branches hang

    A blackbird leads the loud song

    Above my pen-lined booklet

    I hear a fluting bird-throng

    
    The cuckoo pipes a clear call

    Its dun cloak hid in deep dell:

    Praise to God for his goodness

    That in woodland I write well

    (translated by Maire Mac Neill)



The original Irish text 

    Dom-farcai fidbaide fál
    fom-chain loíd luin, lúad nád cél;
    h-úas mo lebrán, ind línech,
    fom-chain trírech inna n-én.

    Fomm-chain coí menn, medair mass,
    hi m-brot glass de dingnaib doss.
    Debrath! nom-Choimmdiu-coíma:
    caín-scríbaimm fo roída ross.

Note: This beautiful early Irish poem describes the joy of a scribe working in a forest surrounded by bird song and nature. It is found in the margins of a ninth century Irish treatise on Latin grammar, which now resides in the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland.