Pilgrim

Pilgrim, take care your journey's not in vain, 

a hazard without profit, without gain;

the King you seek you'll find it Rome, its true,

but only if he travels on the way with you.

 

Medieval Irish Lyrics with The Irish Bardic Poet

Selected and translated by James Carney

The Dolmen Press 1985 edition.

Another translation from Robin Flower, The Irish Tradition, The Lilliput Press Ltd 1994

Who to Rome goes

Much labour, little profit knows;

For God, on earth though long you've sought him,

You'll miss in Rome unless you've brought him.

 

(From the manuscript of Sedulius Scottus)