Here's an English translation copied from "Songs of England, Ireland and Scotland". Is this translation close to the original, Aine? I've heard the English version sung by Johnny McEvoy.

Wolfgang

An Bunnán Buí (The yellow bittern)
(verses 1, 3, and 4 from Johhny Beggan, verse 2 from Mick Moloney)

1. An bunnán buí, that never broke out
On a drinking bout, might as well have drunk.
His bones are thrown on a naked stone
Where he lived all alone like a hermit monk
. An bunnán buí, I pity your plight,
Though they say that a sot like myself is cursed.
I was sober awhile, but I'll drink and be wise
For fear I might die in the end of thirst.

2. 'Tis not for the common bird that I do mourn
For the blackbird, the corncrake or the crane,
But for the bunnán buí who is shy and apart
And who lives in the marsh and the lone bog drain.
If I had known that you were near your death,
While my breath held out, I would have run to you,
Till a splash from the lake of the son of the bird
Would have lifted your soul to a life anew.

3. My darling once told me to drink no more
or my life would be o'er in a little short while.
I said it's the drink gives me health and strength
And lengthens my road by many a mile.
You can see how the bird of the long smooth neck
Will find his death from the thirst at last.
Oh son of my soul come fill up your cup
For you'll get no sup when your life is passed.

4. On a wintering island near Constantine's hall,
A bittern cries from a windless place.
And tells me that hither he cannot come,
Till Summer is here and the sunny days.
As he crosses the lake and wings o'er the sea,
A thought comes to me he may fail in his flight.
Oh the wine and the ale, they are drunk every drop,
But a dram won't cure our thirst this night.

from the notes to this song: "...Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna, who composed the words after finding a bittern, dead from thirst, by the shore of a hard-frozen lake..."