"Death the Comrade." Original in Dr. Hyde's _Religious Songs_, ii. pp. 288-90.
"Muirneen of the Fair Hair." Original in Dr. Hyde's _Love-Songs_, pp. 10-12. _Cf._ another Munster version on p. 16, and one given by Hardiman, i. p. 354.
"The Red Man's Wife." A popular theme on which there are many variations. We give two, the originals of both being taken from Dr. Hyde's _Love-Songs_, pp. 92 and 94. The first is a Galway version, the second from Co. Meath. The latter was first printed in the _Oban Times_. Yet another version is given in Dr. Hyde's edition of _Raftery's Poems_, p. 210.
"My Grief on the Sea." Original in Dr. Hyde's _Love-Songs_. It was taken down by him from an old woman named Biddy Cusruaidh or Crummy, living in the midst of a bog in Co. Roscommon.
"Oró Mhór, a Mhóirín." Original in Petrie's _Ancient Music of Ireland_, p. 120. It was obtained by him from Teigue MacMahon, a peasant of Co. Clare. Mr. P. J. McCall's poem was printed in his _Pulse of the Bards_ (Gill & Son, 1904), p. 50. * * * *
*"The Little Yellow Road." Original taken down by Prof. John MacNeill in Co. Mayo in July 1894, and printed by him in the _Gaelic Journal_ for that year (vol. v., No. 6), p. 91. There are several versions of _An Bóithrín buidhe_; see for another, Petrie's _Ancient Music_, p. 24. Mr. Campbell's translation, kindly contributed to this collection, has not been published before.
"Reproach to the Pipe" (_Másladh an Phíopa_). The original, taken down in Galway, will be found in the _Gaelic Journal_ (vol. vi., No. 5), p. 73.
"Modereen Rue." Mrs. Tynan-Hinkson's poem is not a direct translation, but a spirited free version of the favourite Gaelic song of this name; it was published in _The Wind in the Trees_ (Grant Richards, 1898), p. 98.
"The Stars Stand Up" (_Táid na realta 'n-a seasadh ar an aer_). Original in _Ceól-sídhe_, Part iv., p. 50, among other places. I have altered the last four lines.
"The Love Smart." Original in Dr. Hyde's _Love-Songs_, p. 22.
"Well for Thee." Original, _ibid._, p. 130.
"I am Raftery the Poet." From Dr. Hyde's edition of _Raftery's Poems_ (H. M. Gill & Son, Dublin, 1903), p. 40.
"Dust hath closed Helen's eye." Original, _ibid._, p. 330. Mr. W. B. Yeats has slightly worked over Lady Gregory's rendering. Mary Hynes, who "died of fever before the famine," has left a tradition of beauty behind her in her own country. "She was the finest thing that was ever shaped," said an old fiddler who remembered her well. Baoile laoi (Ballylee) is a little village of some half-dozen houses in the barony of Kiltartan. Lady Gregory's beautiful rendering was published in an article by Mr. W. B. Yeats in _The Dome_, New Series, vol. iv. p. 161.