Vision of a Fair Woman

From the Ancient Erse

From Elizabeth A. Sharp’s “Lyra Celtica”

TELL us some of the charms of the stars:

Close and well set were her ivory teeth;

White as the canna upon the moor

Was her bosom the tartan bright beneath.

Her well-rounded forehead shone

Soft and fair as the mountain snow;

Her two breasts were heaving full;

To them did the hearts of heroes flow.

Her lips were ruddier than the rose;

Tender and tunefully sweet her tongue;

White as the foam adown her side

Her delicate fingers extended hung.

Smooth as the dusky down of the elk

Appeared her shady eyebrows to me;

Lovely her cheeks were, like berries red;

From every guile she was wholly free.

Her countenance looked like the gentle buds

Unfolding their beauty in early spring;

Her yellow locks like the gold-browed hills;

And her eyes like the radiance the sunbeams bring.