Let Erin Remember
My Latin
Let Erin Remember
Let Erin remember the days of old,
Ere her faithless sons betray'd her;
When Malachi wore the collar of gold,
Which he won from her proud invader,
When her kings, with standard of green unfurl'd,
Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger!
Ere the emerald gem of the western world
Was set in the crown of a stranger.
On Lough Neagh's bank as the fisherman strays,
When the clear cold eve's declining,
He sees the round towers of other days
In the wave beneath him shining:
Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,
Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;
Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time,
For the long-faded glories they cover. Hibernia nostra
tempora lapsa diu memorentur, Hibernia nostra,
queis te tradiderat nondum tua perfida proles.
supremum regem signaverat aurea torques,
invasore truci victorem in lite superbo:
tempore quo viridi regum vexilla colore
audendis equites rutilos duxere periclis,
Hesperiae necdum Smaragditia gemma iacebat
capta per externos, aliena inserta corona.
est lacus insignis: ripa piscator in alta,
solis ad occasum deerrans per frigus et umbram,
viderit antiquas torres praestare rotundas,
surgere fulgentes et aqua lucere profunda.
sic etiam referent sublimia somnia menti
grandia tempora, lapsorum simulacra dierum:
vanescunt refugis aevis moribunda per undas,
in queis iamdudum se pristina gloria condit.Sung by Michael O’Duffy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtPsezf6qn0
Translation: Copyright © Timothy Adès