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Dafydd ap Gwilym: The Ruin (From Welsh)

The Ruin
By Dafydd ap Gwilym
Translated by A.Z. Foreman

Battered hovel bare-holed you stand
Between the moor and meadowland
They sorrow who once saw your prime
As a comely little cottage of pastime
To see you a shattered shack today
With ramshackle roof and rafters agley.

Near your cheerful wall there was a day
I do recall   �  rebuke of pain �
When you were more merry inside
Than now, unsightly  little sty,
When I caught sight (and sang bright praise)
In your corner there of a fair face
A maiden, as noble a lady can be,
Shapely and lively she lay with me
Each one's arm (oh did I love her)
Knotted a bond about the other
The girl's arm fine as flurried snow
Pillowed the ear of her praise-poet so
And mine, a simple trick, I laid
At the cute left ear of that courtwise maid.
Good times we had  in your greenwood heyday
But no, today is not that day.

The Ruin Speaks:
"With shelter's magic moan I do
Bewail the way the wildwind blew.
Spawned of the east    a stormwind squall
Smacked the stones of my slender wall.
On wrathful path grim wind groaned 
From the south and turned me out of a home."

The Poet Speaks
"So it was the late wind wrought such riot?
Well, it gnashed the thatch of your roof all night.
Ripped your lathing like a leaf.
The world is always illusion and grief. 
Your corner which gives my cause to cry
Was once our bed not a wildhog's sty.
You stood that day sturdy and stalwart
Snug above my noble sweetheart
Yet in plain truth, by Peter, today
You are ravished of roof and doorway.
Some things cause instant insanity
Is this smashed shack some fantasy?"

The Ruin Speaks:
"The household is gone with their livelihood
To the grave, Dafydd. Their lives were good."

The Original:

Yr Adfail

'Tydi, y bwth tinrhwth twn
Rhwng y gweundir a'r gwyndwn,
Gwae a'th weles, dygesynt,
Yn gyfannedd gyntedd gynt,
Ac a'th wyl heddiw'n friw frig,
Dan dy ais yn dy ysig.

A hefyd ger dy hoywfur
Ef a fu ddydd, cerydd cur,
Ynod ydd oedd ddiddanach
Nog yr wyd, y gronglwyd grach,
Pan welais, pefr gludais glod,
Yn dy gongl, un deg yngod,
Forwyn, foneddigfwyn fu,
Hoywdwf yn ymgyhydu,
A braich pob un, cof un fydd,
Yn gwlm amgylch ei gilydd:
Braich meinir, briw awch manod,
Goris clust goreuwas clod,
A'm braich innau, somau syml,
Dan glust asw dyn glwys disyml.
Hawddfyd gan fasw i'th fraswydd,
A heddiw nid ydiw'r dydd'.

   'Ys mau gwyn, gwirswyn gwersyllt,
Am hynt a wnaeth y gwynt gwyllt.
Ystorm o fynwes dwyrain
A wnaeth cur hyd y mur main.
Uchenaid gwynt, gerrynt gawdd,
Y deau a'm didyawdd'.

    'Ai'r gwynt a wnaeth helynt hwyr?
Da nithiodd dy do neithwyr.
Hagr y torres dy esyth.
Hudol enbyd yw'r byd byth.
Dy gongl, mau ddeongl ddwyoch,
Gwely ym oedd, nid gw�l moch.
Doe'r oeddud mewn gradd addwyn
Yn glyd uwchben fy myd mwyn.
Hawdd o ddadl, heddiw 'dd ydwyd,
Myn Pedr, heb na chledr na chlwyd.
Amryw bwnc ymwnc amwyll.
Ai hwn yw'r bwth twn bath twyll?'

'Aeth talm o waith y teulu,
Dafydd, � chroes. Da foes fu'.

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