The Hunterian

Peploe and Cadell in Iona

Má ro-m-thoiccthi écc i ndhĺ,
ba gabál di thrócari.
Nicon fettar fo nimh glas
fóttán bad fherr fri tiugbas.
    (Atributed to Adomnán, c.700)

If death should come to me in Iona
it would be a merciful parting.
Of all I know under the blue skies
there is no better sod on which to die.

Their interest lay in form and light,
brushing pale shell-sand into the bays
where Adomnán deemed best to die.

Foreground boulders, a still-life,
Beinn Mór’s escarpments, amethyst and jade,
their interest lay in form and light.

Iona, so small you can climb Dùn Ì
and see below you are circlet of waves,
where Adomnán deemed best to die.

Over lava sills and basalt dykes
a summer evening casts a shimmering veil,
their interest lay in form and light.

Rose-flecked granite and opal sky,
the Treshnish Islands float away
where Adomnán deemed best to die.

Horizons of deepening aquamarine
coax the mind beyond its day
for their interest lay in form and light
where Adomnán deemed best to die.

Meg Bateman