Conversing with the Woodcock

	'You, bird of loud commotion,

	eager woodcock, with an angry way,

	tell [me], bird of noble wing,

4	where are you going; you're good and fair.'

	'It's freezing hard and fast,

	I'm fleeing, by my faith,

	on a journey from where I was in the summer,

8	to shelter from the winter snow.

	Some harsh memory, the ice of black winter

	and its snowdrift won't let me stay.'

	'Bird, you have not been granted a long life,

12	fine bird with a long beak.

	Come (don't say two words)

	to where is the one I love, of the colour of Mary,

	a merry place by a gentle slope,

16	a fine place with warm weather, where a wave is heard,

	to shelter from the winter breeze,

	by a long blessing, to wait for summer.

	'If there comes close to you (bold language)

20	a wanderer, a very persistent whistler,

	with a broad-headed arrow and a bow,

	and he sees you, man, in your fine lair,

	don't hide because of his voice, don't close

24	your eye under your clear barring.

	Fly, hurry from treachery,

	and deceive him in your lively and good way,

	from hedge to hedge, unfortunate trouble,

28	from copse to copse in wasteland.

	Fair is your movement, if your foot should stick

	in a trap at the edge of small trees,

	don't yield, restless your movement,

32	to a cockshoot (?), bent and withered snare.

	Cut strongly from around your claw

	with your strong beak eight brittle horsehair twine;

	sad beak, he loves old woods,

36	augur of the earth's breaches.

	'Land today by a wooded slope

	below the girl's house, fair is her hair,

	and find out, by Cybi's image,

40	by the slope, whether she is faithful.

	Watch her movements, watch and wait

	there, lonely bird.'

	'It's best to warn you,

44	you, fair talkative lad: be quiet!

	It's too late (I fear the icy wind)

	to watch her, the doing is poor;

	it's strange how long she/it has been getting colder,

48	another lively and clever man has taken her.'

	'If it is true, bird (I have a passion that flies

	after love), [that] I am abandoned,

	it is true what (warrant of good grace)

52	they of olden times sang of such bad situations as this:

	"A tree in the wood"—I have great longing—

	"It's the other man with the axe who owns it."'