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Carmina Gadelica, Volume 1, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900], at sacred-texts.com


 

p. 38

p. 39

EOSAI BU CHOIR A MHOLADH [14]

JESU WHO OUGHT TO BE PRAISED

 

THE reciter said that this poem was composed by a woman in Harris. She was afflicted with leprosy, and was removed from the community on the upland to dwell alone on the sea-shore, where she lived on the plants of the plains and on the shell-fish of the strand. The woman bathed herself in the liquid in which she had boiled the plants and shell-fish. All her sores became healed and her flesh became new--probably as the result of the action of the plants and shell-fish. Leprosy was common everywhere in mediæval times. In Shetland the disease continued till towards the end of last century. Communities erected lazar-houses to safeguard themselves from persons afflicted with leprosy. Liberton, now a suburb of Edinburgh, derives its name from a lazaretto having been established there.

The shrine of St James of Compostello in Spain was famous for the cure of leprosy. Crowds of leper pilgrims from the whole of Christendom resorted to this shrine, and many of them were healed to the glory of the Saint and the enrichment of his shrine. In their gratitude, pilgrims offered costly oblations of silks and satins, of raiments and vestments, of silver and gold, of pearls and precious stones, till the shrine of St James of Compostello became famous throughout the world. The bay of Compostello was famed for fish and shell-fish, and the leper pilgrims who came to pray at the altar of the Saint and to bestow gifts at his shrine were fed on those and were healed--according to the belief of the period, by the miraculous intervention of the Saint. As the palm was the badge of the pilgrims to Jerusalem, the scallop-shell was the badge of the pilgrims to Compostello:--

'My sandal shoon and scallop-shell.'

 

 

p. 38

 

p. 39

B

BU cho fus a dh’ Iosa
An crann crion uradh
’S an crann ur a chrionadh,
Nam b’e run a dheanadh.
     Eosai! Eosai! Eosai!
     Eosai! bu choir a mholadh.

Ni bheil lus an lar
Nach bheil lan d’a thoradh,
Ni bheil cruth an traigh
Nach bheil lan d’a shonas.
     Eosai! Eosai! Eosai!
     Eosai! bu choir a mholadh.

Ni bheil creubh am fairge,
Ni bheil dearg an abhuinn,

 

IT were as easy for Jesu
To renew the withered tree
As to wither the new
Were it His will so to do.
     Jesu! Jesu! Jesu!
     Jesu! meet it were to praise Him.

There is no plant in the ground
But is full of His virtue,
There is no form in the strand
But is full of His blessing.
     Jesu! Jesu! Jesu!
     Jesu! meet it were to praise Him.

There is no life in the sea,
There is no creature in the river,

 

p. 40

 

p. 41

 

Ni bheil cail an fhailbhe,
Nach bheil dearbh d’a mhaitheas.
     Eosai! Eosai! Eosai!
     Eosai bu choir a mholadh.

Ni bheil ian air sgeith
Ni bheil reul an adhar,
Ni bheil sian fo’n ghrein.
Nach tog sgeul d’a mhaitheas.
     Eosai! Eosai! Eosai!
     Eosai bu choir a mholadh.

 

There is naught in the firmament,
But proclaims His goodness.
     Jesu! Jesu! Jesu!
     Jesu! meet it were to praise Him.

There is no bird on the wing,
There is no star in the sky,
There is nothing beneath the sun,
But proclaims His goodness.
     Jesu! Jesu! Jesu!
     Jesu! meet it were to praise Him.

 

 


Next: 15. The Rock of Rocks. Carraig Nan Al