Eiddig's Three Gatekeepers
Three gatekeepers of Eiddig's three gates,
nasty muster, it was troublesome,
they were placed there to terrify me,
4 it was ill-fortune for me to meet with the three.
The first of Eiddig's gatekeepers,
he bestowed a gift, nasty house which combines enemies,
is a strong damp-stinking fierce-barking dog,
8 awful noise, rabid manner;
and the second gatekeeper is the angry door
which squeaks, woe to its partner;
the third, I suffer penance every day,
12 which prevents me from gaining benefit in life
is a nasty sick aching hag
(her death day is close), Eiddig's faithful servant.
If the night were as long as ten nights,
16 and if she were in heaven, restless hag,
she does not sleep a single hour
in her rough flea-ridden lair because her bones are rotten.
Ailing sow complaining
20 about her thigh (she's ugly), and her hand,
and the pain in her elbows,
and her aching shoulder, and her knee.
I came the night before last, grim dark night,
24 clumsy man, to Eiddig's home,
in the manner of a guest, intending, indeed,
to visit a jewel bright as the moon.
Poet's prison, as I went
28 heedlessly towards the black door,
a red dog jumped out at me from a pigsty,
intent on leaving its mark on me.
It growled at me most fiercely,
32 and took a full bite of the horse-hair of my cloak.
The man's dog ripped the whole of my mantle,
an insult which angers me, castle of grief.
I gave the oak door a shove, clang [like] a basin,
36 and it went berserk.
It let out a noise like the cackling of geese,
no way did I dare to close it!
Blush of a narrow muse, even worse news,
40 I heard the hag in a corner
hurriedly proclaiming
to the man of the house (what bad fortune)
'The heavy door is opening,
44 the dog's rage is great [like] a giant's arm.'
I retreated swiftly back
to the door, with the smelly dog pursuing me.
I walked, I didn't stay long to consider,
48 by the wall, I know I got cold,
along the lovely bright castle
to call on the fair jewel.
I shot arrows of love through the wall
52 at the slender girl, gathering of pain.
She shot love from her bright willing breast
to greet me.
It was pleasant for me, love does not anger me,
56 on the other side of the stone wall to the slender girl.
I complained, I expressed my anger,
it was awful, about Eiddig's door,
causer of mishaps, and his dung-heaps,
60 and his forbidding hedge and his hag and his dog.
Although the hag (loss of intercourse)
and the door below the hall and the dog
were able to keep me, bold young poet of the valley,
64 from Eiddig's buildings and his homestead,
God gives me the freedom
of branching woods and field.