Dia daoibh,

Tá ceist agam, le do thoil.
I am hoping to receive help from the savvy forum members. I've been struggling through a text with the help of a dictionary and I am not sure whether a different translation than the one provided in the text might not be more accurate. As Gaeilge: "ach bhí iontas crua nár bhraith siad, ag bualadh faoi m'ucht", as Béarla: "I felt a sharp wonder they could not feel". What kind of a "sharp wonder" is meant here I just don't understand. Would anyone be so kind as to explain what the Irish says, literally?

Go raibh maith agat,
Medbh

A sort of surprised insight

...but there was a cruel wonder they did not perceive, beating in my chest

Can the whole context be given?

Dia daoibh,

Context is everything, yes. Go raibh maith agat to Unregistered Guest and Fearn. Gabh mo leithscéal for the ommission of the context. The line in question is from "An Muince Dreoiliní". The writer recalls how as "bhuachaill óg" he found a nest of young birds.
As he rested on the grass, they flew about him and finally alighted on him, making a feather necklet around his neck.

Níor dhuine mé ach géag crainn
nó carn cloch
ach bhí iontas crua nár bhraith siad,
ag bualadh faoi m'ucht."

B'n an lá ar thuirling ceird
a éilíonn ómós:
is d'fhag a n-ingne forba orm
nár leigheasadh fós.

I understand that he was visited by his destiny in that moment of "surprised insight" / "cruel wonder", but my reading is very literal, alas! and "sharp wonder" just did not "link".

I greatly appreciate both your interpretations.
Go raibh maith agat.

Go ndéana a mhaith duit