I: (The harbinger Morrigan)
Blear with dew came the morrow
And winds rustled aloud.
Down by the rill where purled the flow
The Washer1 washed the shrouds
And Nemain2 sang of woe and sorrow.
""O black-feathered Morrigan""
II: (O'er bleak winds of death)
A raven, Morrigan yclept, loomed awaiting burial.
On wings o'er rueful winds, she stalked along.
A storm-blast of blazonry chased the sands
And left the drift seen afar.
A breeze brought the scattered grains,
That flung 'gainst the dewy scars.
Her frenzied squawks exhorted the ravage
And the hewing of sheen blades,
And blood suffused the barren earth,
'Pon which the crimson dawn glowered.
A Crimson Dawn Awakened!
III: (Hoarse cries and clanging steel)
The brash and bray heartened the noble souls
To defy the singeing fervour of battle.
The carmine sky was brimming with sore shrieks,
As they rose high above the flourish of brazen trumpets.
IV: (The beacon glare)
When, dark by smoke and red by fire,
Aurora had won the day,
The sun, in beacon glare, rose higher
And sweltered drouthy fey.
V: (The ascent of warlike fever)
The fervour seared the sanguine plain,
And the sour scent of cold damp
Did linger no more. Undaunted or felled,
Shrieks resounded to where their lot was cast.
""O black-feathered Morrigan""
""Thrilled by rankling fury, as I hearkened direful voices,
The red blaze of death aroused my vengeful moods.""
""The glorious grandeur of battle, at this blood-tinged dawn,
Made boil my ebon ichor, glinstering as steel whirled.""
The carmine sky in ashen stains flecked
Brimmed with husky moans.
Thus the sabre-rattling swoll
Into drear timbres of ire
(The
