he three grandsons of Capha, son of Cinga, son of Ros, son of Rudhraighe, were Monach, and Bailé [recte Buan], and Fercorb, a quibus Dal mBuain and Dal Cuirb, and the Monachs of Aradh.
Trans. Eugene O'Curry
he three grandsons of Capha, son of Cinga, son of Ros, son of Rudhraighe, were Monach, and Bailé [recte Buan], and Fercorb, a quibus Dal mBuain and Dal Cuirb, and the Monachs of Aradh.
Buan's only son was Bailé; he was the specially beloved of Aillinn, the daughter of Lughaidh, son of Fergus Fairge (or [as some say] the daughter of Eoghan, the son of Dathi) ; and he was the specially beloved of every one who saw or heard him, both men and women, on account of his novel stories. And they [himself and Aillinn] made an appointment to meet at Ros na Righ, at Lann Maolduibh, on the [south] brink of the Boinn [Boyne] in Bregia.
The man [Bailé] came from the north to meet her, from Emain Macha, over Sliabh Fuaid, over Muirtheimhne to Traigh niBailé [Dundalk]. Here they unyoked their chariots, sent their horses out to graze, and turned themselves to pleasure and happiness.
While there, they saw a horrible spectral personage coming towards them from the south. Vehement was his step and his rapid progress. The manner in which he sped over the earth might be compared to the darting of a hawk down a cliff, or to wind from off the green sea. His left was towards the land [he was coming from the south along the shore].
Let him be met, said Bailé, to ask him where he goes, and where he comes from, and what is the cause of his haste.
To Tuagh Inbher [the Mouth of the River Bann] I go back, to the north, now, from Sliabh Suidhe Laighen [now "Mount Leinster"] ; and I have no news but of the daughter of Lughaidh, son of Fergus, who had fallen in love with Bailé Mac Buain, and was coming to meet him, until the youths of Leinster overtook her, and she was killed by the forcible detention [i.e., lost her life for having been detained] ; as it was promised [foretold] by druids and good prophets for them, that they would not meet in life, and that they would meet after their deaths, and that they would not part for ever after. This is my news. And he darted away from them like a blast of wind over the green sea, and they were not able to detain him.
When Bailé heard this, he fell dead without life, and his tomb was raised and his Raith ; and his tombstone was set up, and his fair of lamentation [assembly for games, etc., in honour of a deceased personage] was held by the Ultonians. And a yew grew up through his grave, and the form and shape of Bailé's head was visible on the top of it, unde Traigh mBailé.
Afterwards the same man went to the south to where the maiden Aillinn was, and went into the grianan [sunny chamber]. Whence comes the man that we do not know ? said the maiden. From the northern half of Erinn, from Tuagh Inbher, and [I go] past this place to Sliabh Suidhe Laighen. Have you news? said the maiden. I have not news worth relating now, but that I have seen the Ultonians holding a fair of lamentation, and raising a Raith, and erecting a stone, and writing his name, to Baile Mac Buain, the Righ-dhamhna [royal heir] of Ulster, by the side of Traigh Bhailé, [who died] whilst he was coming to meet a favourite and beloved woman to whom he had given love ; for it is not destined for them that they should reach each other alive, or that one of them should see the other alive. He darted out after telling the evil news. Aillinn fell dead without life, and her tomb was raised, etc. [as before in the case of Bailé]. And an apple-tree grew through her grave, and became a great tree at the end of seven years, and the shape of Aillinn's head upon its top [that is, the top, as in Bailé's case, took the shape of Aillinn's head and face.]
At the end of seven years, poets and prophets and visioners cut down the yew which was over the grave of Bailé, and they made a poet's tablet (Taball Filidh) of it, and they wrote the visions, and the espousals, and the loves, and the courtships of Ulster in it. [The apple-tree which grew over Aillinn was also cut down and] in the same way the courtships of Leinster were written in it.
When the November-eve (Samhain) had arrived, (long) afterwards, and its festival was made by Art, the son of Conn, the poets and the professors of every art came to that feast, as it was their custom, and they brought their tablets with them. And these Tablets also came there ; and Art saw them, and when he saw them he asked for them ; and the two tablets were brought, and he held them in his hands face to face. Suddenly the one tablet of them sprang upon the other, and they became united the same as woodbine around a twig, and it was not possible to separate them. And they were preserved like every other jewel in the treasury at Tara, until it was burned by Danlang, the son of Enna, namely, at the time that he burned the princesses at Tara.
Ut dicitur :
The apple tree of noble Aillinn,
The yew of Bailé, small inheritance,
Although they are introduced into poems.
They are not understood by unlearned people.
And [Ailbhé] the daughter of Cormac, the grandson of Conn, said :
What I liken Aluime to,
Is to the yew of Raith Bailé;
What I liken the other to.
Is to the apple tree of Aillinn.
Flann Mac Lonan dixit :
Let Cormac decide with proper sense,
So that he be envied by the hosts
Let him remember, the illustrious saint,
The tree of the strand of Bailé Mac Buain.
There grew up a tree under which companies could sport,
With the form of his face set out on it's clustering top;
When he was betrayed, truth was betrayed,
It is in that same way they betray Cormac.
Cormac dixit :
Here was entombed the son of White Buan.
Sources: Eugene O'Curry, Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of ancient Irish history
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