The Voyage of Bran son of Febal
’TWAS fifty quatrains the woman from unknown lands sang on the floor of the house to Bran son of Febal, when the royal house was full of kings, who knew not whence the woman had come, since the ramparts were closed.
This is the beginning of the story. One day, in the neighbourhood of his stronghold, Bran went about alone, when he heard music behind him. As often as he looked back, ’twas still behind him the music was. At last he fell asleep at the music, such was its sweetness. When he awoke from his sleep, he saw close by him a branch of silver with white blossoms, nor was it easy to distinguish its bloom from that branch. Then Bran took the branch in his hand to his royal house. When the hosts were in the royal house, they saw a woman in strange raiment on the floor of the house. ’Twas then she sang the fifty quatrains to Bran, while the host heard her, and all beheld the woman.
And she said:
‘A branch of the apple-tree from Emain
I bring, like those one knows;
Twigs of white silver are on it,
Crystal brows with blossoms.
‘There is a distant isle,
Around which sea-horses glisten:
A fair course against the white-swelling surge,
Four feet uphold it.
‘A delight of the eyes, a glorious range,
Is the plain on which the hosts hold games:
Coracle contends against chariot
In southern Mag Findargat.
‘Feet of white bronze under it
Glittering through beautiful ages.
Lovely land throughout the world’s age,
On which the many blossoms drop.
‘An ancient tree there is with blossoms,
On which birds call to the Hours.
’Tis in harmony it is their wont
To call together every Hour.
‘Splendours of every colour glisten
Throughout the gentle-voiced plains.
Joy is known, ranked around music,
In southern Mag Argatnél.
‘Unknown is wailing or treachery
In the familiar cultivated land,
There is nothing rough or harsh,
But sweet music striking on the ear.
‘Without grief, without sorrow, without death,
Without any sickness, without debility,
That is the sign of Emain
Uncommon is an equal marvel.
‘A beauty of a wondrous land,
Whose aspects are lovely,
Whose view is a fair country,
Incomparable is its haze.
‘Then if Aircthech is seen,
On which dragonstones and crystals drop
The sea washes the wave against the land,
Hair of crystal drops from its mane.
‘Wealth, treasures of every hue,
Are in Ciuin, a beauty of freshness,
Listening to sweet music,
Drinking the best of wine.
‘Golden chariots in Mag Réin,
Rising with the tide to the sun,
Chariots of silver in Mag Mon,
And of bronze without blemish.
‘Yellow golden steeds are on the sward there,
Other steeds with crimson hue,
Others with wool upon their backs
Of the hue of heaven all-blue.
At sunrise there will come
A fair man illumining level lands;
He rides upon the fair sea-washed plain,
He stirs the ocean till it is blood.
‘A host will come across the clear sea,
To the land they show their rowing;
Then they row to the conspicuous stone,
From which arise a hundred strains.
‘It sings a strain unto the host
Through long ages, it is not sad,
Its music swells with choruses of hundreds–
They look for neither decay nor death.
‘Many-shaped Emne by the sea,
Whether it be near, whether it be far,
In which are many thousands of motley women,
Which the clear sea encircles.
‘If he has heard the voice of the music,
The chorus of the little birds from Imchiuin,
A small band of women will come from a height
To the plain of sport in which he is.
‘There will come happiness with health
To the land against which laughter peals,
Into Imchiuin at every season
Will come everlasting joy.
‘It is a day of lasting weather
That showers silver on the lands,
A pure-white cliff on the range of the sea,
Which from the sun receives its heat
‘The host race along Mag Mon,
A beautiful game, not feeble,
In the variegated land over a mass of beauty
They look for neither decay nor death.
‘Listening to music at night,
And going into Ildathach,
A variegated land. splendour on a diadem of beauty,
Whence the white cloud glistens.
‘There are thrice fifty distant isles
In the ocean to the west of us;
Larger than Erin twice
Is each of them, or thrice.
‘Not to all of you is my speech,
Though its great marvel has been made known:
Let Bran hear from the crowd of the world
What of wisdom has been told to him.
‘Do not fall on a bed of sloth,
Let not thy intoxication overcome thee,
Begin a voyage across the clear sea,
If perchance thou mayst reach the land of women.’
Thereupon the woman went from them, while they knew not whither she went. And she took her branch with her. The branch sprang from Bran’s hand into the hand of the woman, nor was there strength in Bran’s hand to hold the branch.
Then on the morrow Bran went upon the sea. The number of his men was three companies of nine. One of his foster-brothers and mates was set over each of the three companies of nine. When he had been at sea two days and two nights, he saw a man in a chariot coming towards him over the sea. That man also sang thirty other quatrains to him, and made himself known to him, and said that he was Manannan the son of Ler, and said that it was upon him to go to Ireland after long ages, and that a son would be born to him, even Mongan son of Fiachna–that was the name which would be upon him.
So he sang these thirty quatrains to him:
‘Bran deems it a marvellous beauty
In his coracle across the clear sea:
While to me in my chariot from afar
It is a flowery plain on which he rides about.
‘What is a clear sea
For the prowed skiff in which Bran is,
That is a happy plain with profusion of flowers
To me from the chariot of two wheels.
‘Bran sees
The number of waves beating across the clear sea:
I myself see in Mag Mon
Red-headed flowers without fault.
‘Sea-horses glisten in summer
As far as Bran has stretched his glance:
Rivers pour forth a stream of honey
In the land of Manannan son of Ler.
‘The sheen of the main, on which thou art,
The white hue of the sea on which thou rowest about,
Yellow and azure are spread out,
It is land, and is not rough.
‘Speckled salmon leap from the womb
Of the white sea, on which thou lookest:
They are calves, they are coloured lambs
With friendliness, without mutual slaughter.
‘Though (but) one chariot-rider is seen
In Mag Mell of many flowers,
There are many steeds on its surface,
Though them thou seest not.
‘The size of the plain, the number of the host,
Colours glisten with pure glory,
A fair stream of silver, cloths of gold,
Afford a welcome with all abundance.
‘A beautiful game, most delightful,
They play (sitting) at the luxurious wine,
Men and gentle women under a bush,
Without sin, without crime.
‘Along the top of a wood has swum
Thy coracle across ridges,
There is a wood of beautiful fruit
Under the prow of thy little skiff.
‘A wood with blossom and fruit,
On which is the vine’s veritable fragrance,
A wood without decay, without defect,
On which are leaves of golden hue.
‘This shape, he on whom thou lookest,
Will come to thy parts;
’Tis mine to journey to her house,
To the woman in Line-mag.
‘For it is Moninnan, the son of Ler,
From the chariot in the shape of a man,
Of his progeny will be a very short while
A fair man in a body of white clay.
‘Monann, the descendant of Ler, will be
A vigorous bed-fellow to Caintigern:
He shall be called to his son in the beautiful world,
Fiachna will aclmowledge him as his son.
‘He will delight the company of every fairy-knoll,
He will be the darling of every goodly land,
He will make known secrets–a course of wisdom–
In the world, without being feared.
‘He will be in the shape of every beast,
Both on the azure sea and on land,
He will be a dragon before hosts at the onset,
He will be a wolf of every great forest.
‘He will be a stag with horns of silver
In the land where chariots are driven,
He will be a speckled salmon in a full pool,
He will be a seal, he will be a fair-white swan.
‘He will be throughout long ages
An hundred years in fair kingship,
He will cut down battalions, –a lasting grave–
He will redden fields, a wheel around the track.
‘It will be about kings with a champion
That he will be known as a valiant hero,
Into the strongholds of a land on a height
I shall send an appointed end from Islay.
‘High shall I place him with princes,
He will be overcome by a son of error;
Moninnan, the son of Ler,
Will be his father, his tutor.
‘He will be–his time will be short–
Fifty years in this world:
A dragonstone from the sea will kill him
In the fight at Senlabor.
‘He will ask a drink from Loch Ló,
While he looks at the stream of blood,
The white host will take him under a wheel of clouds
To the gathering where there is no sorrow.
‘Steadily then Iet Bran row,
Not far to the Land of Women,
Emne with many hues of hospitality
Thou wilt reach before the setting of the sun.’
Thereupon Bran went from him. And he saw an island. He rows round about it, and a large host was gaping and laughing. They were all looking at Bran and his people, but would not stay to converse with them. They continued to give forth gusts of laughter at them. Bran sent one of his people on the island. He ranged himself with the others, and was gaping at them like the other men of the island. He kept rowing round about the island. Whenever his man came past Bran, his comrades would address him. But he would not converse with them, but would only look at them and gape at them. The name of this island is the Island of Joy. Thereupon they left him there.
It was not long thereafter when they reached the Land of Women. They saw the leader of the women at the port. Said the chief of the women: ‘Come hither on land; O Bran son of Febal! Welcome is thy advent!’ Bran did not venture to go on shore. The woman throws a ball of thread to Bran straight over his face. Bran put his hand on the ball, which clave to his palm. The thread of the ball was in the woman’s hand, and she pulled the coracle towards the port. Thereupon they went into a large house, in which was a bed for every couple, even thrice nine beds. The food that was put on every dish vanished not from them. It seemed a year to them that they were there,–it chanced to be many years. No savour was wanting to them.
Home-sickness seized one of them, even Nechtan the son of Collbran. His kindred kept praying Bran that he should go to Ireland with him. The woman said to them their going would make them rue. However, they went, and the woman said that none of them should touch the land, and that they should visit and take with them the man whom they had left in the Island of Joy.
Then they went until they arrived at a gathering at Srub Brain. The men asked of them who it was came over the sea. Said Bran: ‘I am Bran the son of Febal,’ saith he. However, the other saith: ‘We do not know such a one. though the Voyage of Bran is in our ancient stories.’
The man leaps from them out of the coracle. As soon as he touched the earth of Ireland, forthwith he was a heap of ashes, as though he had been in the earth for many hundred years. ’Twas then that Bran sang this quatrain:
‘For Collbran’s son great was the folly
To lift his hand against age,
Without any one casting a wave of pure water
Over Nechtan, Collbran’s son.’
Thereupon, to the people of the gathering Bran told all his wanderings from the beginning until that time. And he wrote these quatrains in Ogam, and then bade them farewell. And from that hour his wanderings are not known.
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Le voyage de Bran à l’île des Bienheureux
Bran est fils de Fébal, roi d’Irlande.
Il se promène devant sa forteresse.
Au loin, la mer et le ciel se fondent dans la brume.
Alors une musique, d’abord lointaine, finit par l’envahir.
Peu à peu la musique s’éloigne et une jeune femme est, devant lui, sur le rocher.
Elle tient dans la main une branche de pommier et dit à Bran :
” Regarde ce que j’ai cueilli, pour toi, dans l’île des Bienheureux. ”
La branche de pommier est ornée de fleurs de cristal
Et, dans ces fleurs, Bran voit les sources, les arbres et les jardins du paradis.
Il tend la main.
Tout s’efface.
C’est certain, il ne vivra plus désormais
Que pour atteindre l’île des Bienheureux.
A l’aube, Bran s’embarque avec vingt-sept hommes.
Il navigue deux jours et deux nuits ;
Au matin du troisième jour, il rencontre un homme seul dans une barque noire.
” Je suis Mannanan, fils de Lir, dit l’homme.
Je suis venu te saluer au nom des vivants de la terre merveilleuse. ”
Bran fait un grand signe de la main
Mais la barque et l’homme s’évaporent dans la brume.
C’est alors qu’une île apparaît à l’horizon.
Le navire de Bran se dirige vers elle, toutes voiles déployées.
Cette île est grise et déchirée.
Des gens, sur le rivage, appellent les marins en grimaçant.
Bran envoie vers ce peuple un matelot dans une chaloupe.
A peine a-t-il touché terre que la foule le saisit, le déchire et le dévore.
Les marins sont horrifiés en contemplant le spectacle
Et en voyant rire les monstres, barbouillés de chair et de sang.
Le navire s’éloigne et reprend sa course sur l’océan.
Au bout de longs jours de navigation
Il parvient devant deux montagnes de verre étincelant.
Elles se balancent et parfois s’entrechoquent.
Quand elles s’éloignent, elles ouvrent un chemin d’eau.
Le bateau s’y engage au risque d’être foudroyé.
Les murailles craquent, remuent et grincent.
Les montagnes se ferment derrière le navire dans un effroyable fracas.
Bran a forcé la porte.
A l’horizon, il voit se dresser l’île des Bienheureux.
Une femme d’une souveraine beauté l’attend sur la plage,
Au milieu des arbres et de multiples buissons de fleurs.
Elle lance à Bran une pelote de fil qui s’attache à sa main.
Elle peut ainsi tirer le bateau vers le rivage.
Les hommes et les femmes qui accueillent les navigateurs
Sont beaux et paisibles.
Ils les invitent à partager leur vie.
L’île est un paradis d’herbe verte, de sources et de jardins superbes.
Bran et ses compagnons vivent là de longs jours,
Dans une félicité sans nuages.
Mais, un soir, au crépuscule, leur vient la nostalgie de l’Irlande.
La reine de l’île essaie de les retenir.
Elle pleure sur l’épaule de Bran.
Le mal du pays est plus fort que toutes les joies du paradis.
Bran et ses compagnons repartent sur la mer.
Après quelques semaines de navigation, les voici près du rivage familier.
Sur le quai, une foule émerveillée se regroupe,
A la vue du bateau légendaire, qui entre dans le port.
Un matelot impatient nage vers la terre.
A peine l’a-t-il touchée qu’il tombe en cendres.
Alors , Bran comprend et dit à ses compagnons :
” Frères, nous ne reverrons jamais nos parents, ni la porte de nos maisons.
Nous avons vécu des centaines d’années, sur l’île des bienheureux.
Là-bas, le temps n’existe plus.
Nous ne sommes plus de ce monde.
Debout, à la proue de son bateau, il raconte en vieux langage irlandais,
Ses aventures aux gens du rivage, puis il leur dit adieu.
Son bateau s’en va vers le large, toutes voiles déployées.
Nul ne l’a plus jamais revu.
Lire le poème en entier à cette adresse: Arbre Celtique
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