The Window

	I walked within leafy enclosures

	(my muttering was a frivolous song)

	by the side (wild tangled lands),

4	as I presumed, of the girl's bedchamber.

	I was glad to discover (fair valiant maid)

	through the grove's branches for a girl's sake

	(a powerful love, fierce thief)

8	a sturdy window on a piece of oak.

	I sought a kiss (fairest of form)

	from the girl through the little oak window,

	the fair jewel — it was wrong of her —

12	refused me, she did not want me;

	troublesome was that window of enduring grief,

	where it was placed to let in the sunlight.

	May I not grow old if there was ever, by way of enchantment,

16	a window such as this,

	apart from the nature of that window (a couple whose predicament was astonishing)

	in the fort of Caerllion long ago

	through which Melwas, impelled by desire,

20	came with none of love's trepidations

	(extreme pain of boundless passion)

	once by the house of Giant Gogfran's daughter.

	Although I could stay a while, when it was snowing,

24	on the wrong side of the window from her,

	unlike Melwas I received no reward,

	my only favour, by God, was the wasting of my cheeks.

	If we were, I and my seamstress, fair jewel,

28	face to face for nine nights,

	with no generous reward, no starlight,

	no gain between the two pillars,

	as the distress grew ever greater on each side of the whitewashed wall,

32	lips to lips, I and my proud slender maid,

	we could not (golden jewel's courage)

	get our two mouths to meet.

	At no time are two mouths

36	through a narrow–pillared wooden window

	(my grim death [it is] to be prevented from [realizing my] promise)

	able to kiss since it's so confined.

	No one by a window

40	at night between fennel and a row of roses,

	without sleep, has ever known such care as I,

	in no joyous mood because of a bright pious girl.

	May a devil — that lair of a window —

44	break its pillars with a blunt tool

	(sharp edge of wrath), and its broad shutter,

	and its lock and key entirely,

	and the man (rule of obstruction)

48	who made such a row of frustrating pillars;

	may he slay the bright one which hinders my effort,

	and the hand that sawed it,

	slay the wicked one which hinders my union,

52	it impeded me there where the girl was.