The Poem-book of the Gael/The Saltair na Rann/The Forbidden Fruit

by Oengus the Culdee

For works with similar titles, see Forbidden Fruit.

III. THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT, (vii.)

RINCE who gave a clear admonition to Eve and to Adam,l. 1081
that they should eat of the produce of Paradise
according to God's command:

"Eat ye of them freely,
of the fruits of Paradise—sweet the fragrance—
many, all of them (a festival to be shared)^[1]
are lawful for you save one tree.

"In order that you may know that you are under authority,
without sorrow, without strife,
without anxiety, without long labour,
without age, evil, or blemish;

"Without decay, without heavy sickness;
with everlasting life, in everlasting triumph
on your going to heaven (joyous the festival)
at the choice age of thirty years."

A thousand years
and six hours of the hours,
without guile, without danger, it has been heard,
Adam was in Paradise.^[2]

O God our help, whom champions prove,
who fashioned all with perfect justice,
not bright the matter of our theme (?)^[3]
the King who spake an admonition with them.

Prince who gave a clear admonition.

(The figures in brackets after the title of the chapters are the numbers of the poems or cantos in the text.)

1. Lit. "share of a festival"; this is one of those chevilles which are frequent in this poem, often introduced without much sense to fill out a line, or to give a rhyming word. We have omitted a few of them in the translation.
2. There seems to be some error here. According to Gen. v. 3, Adam lived altogether nine hundred and thirty years, as the poet states further on (p. 43).
3. The meaning of this line is not clear. The above is conjectural.