| 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. | |