The Dark And The Light by Mbo
(adapted from Robin Flower's translation of the Irish Gaelic poem by Richard Burke)


It seems to me this world has got some crazy notions now,
Like--girls that eyes of blue and hair of gold have been endowed
Are by and large, most beautiful--on no others will they gaze
And girls of darker hue and tint are worthy not of praise.

Myself, I do not hold with that, and never will it condone;
For I sing a song of better stuff the world has ever known;
I say that eyes alight with love to my knees will bring
And that I can be enthralled by eyes as dark as raven's wing.

Chorus:
I ask for no face of rosy-red
Or skin sun-tanned and brown
A pale complexion to me has grace
Like moonlight shining down,

I ask for no golden twining locks
All sparkling in the light
For curling jet-black tresses are
As fair as the sky at night.

O Helen was of golden braids, like sunbeams in her veil,
And in Troy 'tis said she caused a thousand ships to sail;
Oh, all for her was that proud city crushed unto the ground
Yet he mother was a beauty dark, and for that far-renowned.

And now at last the questions stands, and waits for some reply
"Of brown or gold, which is the one that we should raise more high?"
Oh, red-lipped, sweet-voiced, sparkling eyed, with hair the wind will blow
But which is fairer, dark or light, no one will ever know.

Chorus

Coda:
But is it so important that hair, and eyes, and skin
Will tell us who we should and shouldn't try their love to win?
The beauty of a person is not found in faces fair;
But mind and body as a whole reveals the beauty there.

Chorus

Matthew Richards (1998)