Anac Cuan

Lyrics

If my health is spared, I'll be long relating Of that boat that sailed out from Anach Cuain And the keening after of mother and father As the laying out of each corpse was done Oh king of graces who died to save us It was a small affair for but one or two But a boatload bravely on came they sailing Without storm or rain to be swept to doom The boat sprang a leak and left all those people And frightened sheep out adrift on the tide It beats all telling what fate befell them Eleven strong men and eight women to die Men who could manage the plough and harrow To break the fallow and scatter seed And women whose fingers were deft and nimble To spin fine linen and cloth to weave Young boys were lying when crops were ripening From the strength of youth they were born to lay In their wedding clothes for their wake they robed them Oh king of glory, man's hope is vain May burning mountains come tumbling down On that place of drowning may curses fall For many a soul it is filled with mourning And left without hope of a bright day's dawn The cause of their fate was no fault of sailing It was the boat that failed them the Caislean Nuadh And it left me to make with a heart that's breaking This lamentation for Anach Cuain