Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/115





T will no doubt be interesting to our readers to be presented here with some poetical translations of St. Patrick's Hymn. The first is that by James Clarence Mangan, a talented but unfortunate Irish poet. It originally appeared in Duffy's Magazine, and was afterwards reprinted in a volume of Mangan's collected Poems, with a Biographical Introduction by John Mitchell (New York, 1859). It was also given in the appendix to the first edition of The College Irish Grammar, by Rev. Ulick J. Bourke (Dublin, O'Daly, 1856), and later in Canon McIlwaine's Lyra Hibernica, Belfast, Dublin, and London, 2nd ed., 1879. The translation is a very spirited one, and 'preserves,' as Dr. Todd remarks in his work on St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, 'the tone and spirit of the original.' It must be remembered that this version was founded on the translation originally made by Dr. Petrie, and therefore has the error of translating the opening words of the hymn 'At Tara,' as well as others mentioned in our notes. (See note 2, p. 121.)