It will be time like doomsday; and gifts will be given to

the poet.

The action will be heard all over the land.

His driving and impelling forces will have no end.

His gifts, according to established rights, he will pour forth.

Let us deserve and love Caer Leriydd,

Because of the voice of God whose favour is unfeigned.

Until we shall have been long through.

60 Purity is a state of freedom from frailty.

Precious will be the gifts of baptism from my Lord,
Seek mercy, for fear of the element of discord.

II.

Around Buallt the troops of the public host

Cause a tumult: there is complaint for each destruction.
When disbanded let the hordes of Henri fly.
Obscure is the top of the Caer where ruins meet.
Alun, the foremost in beauty, is all commotion,
Dispersion, ruin, and disgrace are all over it:
70 The slaughter shocks one when thou relatest it;
To relate its severe loss thou canst not.

From the contention of a baron of short co-operation,
There will be a white corpse, without head, without beauty,
There will be spare horses, worthless to be destroyed.

And men with unfriendly looks about Ceri,

And loud uproar, and thrusting, and shouting,

And groaning in every

Actively will the sons of Cymry call upon Dewi
Who loveth peace and mercy

III.

.

80 Fellow-ranger of the green woods!

Painful, piercing grief affects me.

Conflicts are pangs of anguish to the upright.

496 POEMS WHICH MENTION HENRY, OR THE SON OF HENRY.

The life of a man is pursued like that of a wretch,
By the strong ones of Lloegyr who corrupt equity.
Let us meet them and see their death!

The union of Saxons is but for a night;

Of ignoble descent they are in the banquet of mead; They make compacts without mutual entertainment and sociality;

And break them with a violent rupture :

90 Barons whose co-operation is of short duration.

And the ruler of what land in Gwyned, inferior in speech,
Can relate the fatigue and trouble of pursuing them?
Look if you can see any paltry spoil.

The tumult of slaughter is heard again.

Let reparation be made if there is military law.

It is peaceless treachery if a man is to be denied the hope
Of being brought to God at once.

Hosts get rich on full march.

A plaintiff is strong while investigating his claim. 100 A man was killed by an unlucky obstruction. True, it is incumbent on the innocent to die,

But it is a disgrace before God to cause his death.
There is a deliverer ten times to the brave.

God will be pleased when every language shall have

ceased.

Health by means of penance is a painful restriction.
May he give us through hope,

In the end, mercy through a just compact! Amen.

III.

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS FROM THE BLACK

BOOK OF CAERMARTHEN.

Q.

POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO OTHER EARLY BARDS.

LXXI.
MEIGANT.

BLACK BOOK OF CAERMARTHEN II.

Text, vol. ii. p. 5. Notes, vol. ii. p. 323.

A DREAM I happen to see last night; clever is he that can interpret it.

It shall not be related to the wanton; he that will not conceal it shall know it not.

It is an act of the gentle to govern the multitude. Pleasure is not the wealth of a country.

Have I not been under the same covering with a fair maid of the hue of the billow of the strand?

Labour bestowed on anything good is no pain, and the remembrance of it will last.

Worse is my trouble to answer him who is not acquainted with it.

It is no reparation for an evil deed, a desistence after it is done. One's benefit does not appear when it is asked for in a roundabout way thou hadst better keep to what there is.

And associate with the virtuous, and be resolute as to what

may happen.

10 He that frequently commits crime will at last be caught. He that will not relate a thing fully, will not find himself

contradicted.

Riches will not flourish with the wicked. Mass will not

be sung on a retreat.

A sigh is no protection against the vile. He that is not liberal does not deserve the name.

LXXII.

CUHELYN.

BLACK BOOK OF CAERMARTHEN III.

Text, vol. ii. p. 5. Notes, vol. ii. p. 324.

OD supreme, be mine the Awen! Amen; fiat! A successful song of fruitful praise, relating to the bustling course of the host,

According to the sacred ode of Cyridwen, the goddess of various seeds,

The various seeds of poetic harmony, the exalted speech of the graduated minstrel,

Cuhelyn the bard of elegant Cymraec utterly rejects.
A poem for a favour, the gift of friendship, will not be

maintained.

But a composition of thorough praise is being brought to thee,

Splendid singer in a choir, and of a song equal in length

and motion.

Appropriate and full were the tuneful horns, gloriously ascended the conflagration

10 of the nation of the border, whose troops were of the same pace and simultaneous movement.

Praise the hero, whose gift is large, the benefit of humble

suitors.

Light is the rebuke of the rallying-point of relatives, the winner of praise,

A skilful fastener, for a hundred calends, the accumulator

of heat;

A fierce frowning wolf, whose inflexible disposition is law, accustomed to jurisdiction.

Eidoel was a man extremely brave, very choice and full of

wisdom;

A leader as regards the Brython, full of knowledge and prudence, fiery in his wrath;

Accustomed to hatred, accustomed to harmony, and to the high seat in the banquet of mead;

Partaker of the intoxicating wine, a knight of the list, a place of limitation;

A lord who is the measurer of the wall, the delight of the four quarters, the great centre power;

20 A knight of stout conduct, a knight of virtuous conduct, with warriors full of rage;

A guardian celebrated in song, a fine panegyric, the
blandishment of language.

Odious was his death by Nognaw.// Am I not agitated?
The active and eloquent one will I praise;

A contented ruler, a restless guardian, energetic and wise.
A company of active reapers, melodious poetry, and the
assuaging of wrath;

A talented hero, like a furious wave over the strand,

The marrow of fine songs, a contemplative mind, a sacred

mystery;

A servitor with knowledge, the possession of mead, an agreeable eulogy;