The Lament of Créide, Daughter of Gúaire of Aidne, 
for Dínertach, Son of Gúaire of the Ui Fidgente

Créide daughter of Gúaire sang these quatrains for Dínertach son of Gúaire son of Nechtan of the Ui Fidgente. She had seen him in the battle of Aidne which had wounded seventeen woundings on the breast of his tunic. She loved him after that. It is then she said:

THE arrows that murder sleep, 
at every hour in the cold night, 
are love-lamenting, by reason of times spent, after day, 
in the company of one from beside the land of Roigne.

Great love for a man of another land
who excelled his coevals has taken my bloom 
(little colour is left); 
it allows me no sleep.

Sweeter than all songs was his speech 
save holy adoration of Heaven’s King: 
glorious flame without a word of boasting, 
slender softsided mate.

When I was a child I was modest:
I used not to be engaged on the evil business of lust; 
since I reached the uncertainty of age 
my wantonness has begun to beguile me.

I have everything good with Gúaire, 
the king of cold Aidne; 
but my mind seeks to go from my people 
to the land which is in Irhiachair.

In the land of glorious Aidne,
around the sides of Cell Cholmáin,
men sing of a glorious flame, from the south of
Limerick of the graves, whose name is Dinertach.

His grievous death, holy Christ, 
torments my kindly heart: 
these are the arrows that murder sleep 
at every hour in the cold night.