Hibernian Song

Romans never reached Ireland.
But they must have dreamed of it.

I imagine a Roman man on the shore of Wales,
with a local traitor, who would be telling him:
"There's a land beyond this sea, sire,
a land full of pots of gold, a land
of enchanted princesses, and green hills ..."

This Roman still looks at the sea,
and thinks with himself that mighty Rome
will someday conquer all the lands,
and I might find, beyond these shores,
a Hibernian princess to sit at my side,
and learn of the stories of my ancestors ...

~~~~~~~~

& he looses himself in a dream
of a cloudy mind and tears held,
and he wakes up in the XXIst century,
at the other side of the Atlantic . . .

In a land called America.

I'm puzzled about how you mean us to take that last line. Is it meant to be ironic, implying that America is so far from Ireland, or literal in that there are so many Irish in the US?

Apart from that qubble, I was/am enchanted with this. Thanks.

Actually, there's a tradition of Irish singers who went to America and wrote songs (and sang them) singing their feelings of regretting having left their homes, some their beloved girls behind ...

As well as we can find Irish songs of women crying because their beloved ones left to America, "and will never come back" ...

I was thinking mainly about one specific song, when I wrote that: "Spancil Hill", which ends exaclty like that, only, the guy wakes in "California, many miles from Spancil Hill". (While I'm not in California, but in Brasil, many miles too, from Ireland, however I never left Ireland ... :D )

I find this feature of the Irish culture very unique.

Thanks for the comment! :thumbs_up

lq~

To learn the stories of your ancestors is always something that I think must be strongly considered for our stories is their stories. if it weren't for them, I think literature would have no place.

Very delicate, yet simple words! Thanks man, I took a sip of enjoyment reading your piece of art.