Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio ...St John the Baptist at the Well ...1607-08

 

 The Executioner of John the Baptist

MS 1 of the Scottish Collection

Askelon, the royal seat,
In which the great deed was done;
There, not lasting was the fame,
John the noble was slain.

'What evil woman among you
Will take in hand my beheading?
Not one from east or west,
Of the blood of Foreigners or Gaels.

'Thou handsome yellow-haired John,
Yonder is a Gael beyond all others;
His abode is far away in the west,
In the lands of the western men.'

'I ask a boon from Christ who loves me,'
Said John the noble,
'That no comely Gael may get
Food nor rainment in any case.'

Said Mogh Ruith without grace,
'Give to me even his rainment,
And I shall cut off his head
For the weal of the men of Ireland.'

Then was John beheaded,
The Gael will suffer therefrom;
Much silver and gold
Was put under the head east in Askelon.

trans. by Prof. MacKinnon