VoyageBran

'A branch of the apple-tree from Emain
I bring, like those one knows;
Twigs of white silver are on it,
Crystal brows with blossoms.

'There is a distant isle,
Around which sea-horses glisten:
A fair course against the white-swelling surge, -
Four feet upheld it.

'A delight of the eyes, a glorious range,
Is the plain on which the hosts held games:
Coracle contends against chariot
In southern Mag Findergast.

Feet of white bronze under it
Glittering through beautiful ages.
Lovely land throughout the world's age,
On which the man blossoms drop.

'An ancient tree, there is with blossoms,
On which birds call in the Hours.
'Tis in harmony it is their wont
To call together every Hour.

'Splendours of every colour glisten
Throughout the gentle-voiced plains.
Joy is known, ranked around music,
In southern Mag Argatnel.

'Unknown is wailing or treachery
In the familiar cultivated land
There is nothing rough or harsh,
But sweet music striking on the ear.

'Without grief, without sorrow, without death,
Without any sickness, without debility,
That is the sign of Emain -
Uncommon is an equal marvel.

'A beauty of a wondrous land,
Whose aspects are lovely,
Whose view is a fair country,
Incomparable is its haze.

'Then if Aircthech is seen,
On which dragonstones and crystals deep
The sea washes the wave against the land,
Hair of crystal drops from its maze.

'Wealth, treasures of every hue,
Are in Ciuin, a beauty of freshness,
Listening to sweet music,
Drinking the best of wine.

'Golden chariots in Mag Rein,
Rising with the tide to the sun,
Chariots of silver in Mag Mon,
And of bronze without blemish.

'Yellow golden steeds are on the sward there,
Other steeds with crimson hue,
Others with wool upon their backs
Of the hue of heaven all-blue.

At sunrise there will come
A fair man illumining level lands;
He rides upon the fair sea-washed plain,
He stirs the ocean till it is blood.

'A host will come across the clear sea,
To the land they show their rowing;
Then they rose to the conspicuous stone,
From which arise a hundred strains.

'It sings a strain unto the host,
Through long ages, it is not sad,
Its music swells with choruses of hundreds -
They look for neither decay nor death.

'Many-shaped Emne by the sea,
Whether it be near, whether it be far,
In which are many thousands of motley women,
Which the clear sea encircles.

'If he has heard the voice of the music,
The chorus of little birds from Imchiuin,
A small band of woman will come from a height
To the plain of sport in which he is.

'There will come happiness with health
To the land against which laughter peals,
Into Imchiuin at every season
Will come everlasting joy.

'It is a day of lasting weather
That showers silver on the lands,
A pure white cliff on the range of the sea,
Which from the sun receives its heat.

'The host race along Mag Mon,
A beautiful game, not feeble,
In the variegated land, over a mass of beauty
They look for neither decay nor death.

'Listening to music at night,
And going into Ildethach,
A variegated land, splendour on a diadem of beauty,
Whence the white cloud glistens.

'There are thrice fifty isles
In the ocean to the west of us;
Larger than Erin twice
Is each of them, or thrice.

A great birth will come after ages,
That will not be in a lofty place,
The son of a woman whose mate will not be known
He will raise the rule of the many thousands,

A rule without beginning, without end,
He has created the world so that it is perfect,
Whose are earth and sea,
Woe to him that shall be under his unwill!

''Tis He that made the heavens,
Happy he that has a white heart,
He will purify hosts under pure water,
'Tis He that will heal your sicknesses.

'Not to all of you is my speech,
Though its great marvel has been made known:
Let Bran hear from the crowd of the world
What of wisdom has been told to him.

Do not fall on a bed of cloth,
Let not thy intoxications overcome thee,
Begin a voyage across the clear sea,
If perchance thou mayst reach the land of women'.

'Bran deems it a marvellous beauty
In his coracle across the clear sea:
While to me in my chariot from afar
It is a flowery plain on which he rides about.

'What is a clear sea
For the prowed skiff in which Bran is,
This is a happy plain with profusion of flowers
To me from the chariot of two wheels.

'Bran sees
The number of waves beating across the clear sea;
I myself see in Mag Mon
Red-headed flowers without fault.

'Sea-horses glisten in summer
As far as Bran has stretched his glance:
Rivers pour forth a stream of honey
In the land of Manannan son of Ler.

'The sheen of the main, on which thou art,
The white hue of the sea, on which thou rowest about,
Yellow and azure are spread out,
It is land and is not rough.

'Speckled salmon leap from the womb
Of the white sea on which thou lookest:
They are calves, they are coloured lambs
With friendliness, without mutual slaughter.

'Though but one chariot ride is seen
In Mag Mon of many flowers,
There are many steeds on its surface,
Though these thou seest not.

'The star of the plain, the number of the host,
Colours glisten with pure glory,
A full stream of silver, cloths of gold,
Afford a welcome with all abundance.

'A beautiful game, most delightful,
They play sitting at the luxurious wine,
Men and gentle women under a bush,
Without sin, without crime.

'Along the top of a wood has swum
Thy coracle, across ridges.
There is a wood of beautiful fruit
Under the prow of thy little skiff.

'A wood with blossoms and fruit,
On which is the vine's veritable fragrance,
A wood without decay, without defect,
On which are leaves of golden hue.

'We are from the beginning of creation
Without old age, without consummation of earth,
Hence we expect not that there should be frailty,
The sin has not come to us.

'An evil day when the Serpent went
To the father to his city!
She has perverted the times in this world,
So that there came decay which was not original.

'By greed and lust he has slain us,
Through which he has ruined his noble race;
The withered body has gone to the fold of torment,
And everlasting abode of torture.

'It is a law of pride in this world
To believe in the creatures, to forget God,
Overthrow by disease, by old age,
Destruction of the soul through deception.

'A noble salvation will come
From the King who has created us,
A white law will come over seas,
Besides being God, He will be man.

'This shape, he on whom thou lookest,
Will come to thy parts;
'Tis mine to journey to her house,
To the woman in Linemag.

'For it is Monnan son of Ler,
From the chariot in the shape of a man,
Of his progeny will be a very short while,
A fair man in a body of white clay.

'Monann, the descendant of Ler, will be
A vigorous bedfellow to Gaintigern:
He shall be called to his son by the beautiful world,
Fiachna will acknowledge him as his son.

'He will delight the company of every fairy-knoll,
He will be the darling of every goodly land,
He will make known secrets - a course of wisdom -
In the world, without being feared.

'He will be in the shape of every beast,
Both on the azure sea and on the land,
He will be a dragon before hosts at the onset,
He will be a wolf of every great forest.

'It will be about kings with a champion
That he will be known as a valiant hero,
Into the strongholds of a land on a height
I shall send an appointed end from Islay.

'High shall I place him with princes,
He will be overcome by a son of error;
Moninnan, the son of Ler,
Will be his father, his tutor.

'He will be -- his time is short --
Fifty years in this world:
A dragonstone from the sea will kill him
In the fight at Senlabor.

'He will ask a drink from Loch Lo,
While he looks at the stream of blood,
The white host will take him under a wheel of clouds
To the gathering where there is no sorrow.

'Steadily then let Bran row,
Not far to the Land of Women,
Emne with many hues of hospitality
Thou wilt reach before the setting of the sun'.

From the chariot in the shape of a man