Against Putting Trust in the World
I have ill fortune, rage of anger;
shame on him who caused my failure!
He is (he will not dare live)
4 Eiddig the thief, rustic Jew.
He did not leave (defence will be no nearer)
wealth in my posession, God has pursued me.
Genial, of a flourishing line, powerful,
8 rich, [and] wealthy I was;
(I bade farwell to worthy passion,
[with] a mind angered eight times over) and now [I am] poor.
Generosity (custom of worthless love,
12 I am blameless) has brought me to nought.
Let not a single fine upstanding lord set his
heart on the deceitful world ever.
Foreign lad, if he does [so] in truth
16 (loss of property) he will be deceived.
Wealth is sorcery and an enemy,
it's a harsh battle and a man's betrayer.
Sometimes it comes, haughtiness yonder,
20 sometimes, for sure, it goes,
like the ebb on the edges of the shore
after the tide of passion and feasting.
A merry and wise blackbird laughs
24 in a green grove, fine palace of song.
Marl is not ploughed for it,
[its] seed is not fresh, it does not plough,
and there is not (small short-legged bird
28 with complete babbling) anything livelier than it.
It's merry, by Lord God,
fashioning praise poetry in a grove of trees.
Merriest (most noble thought)
32 are the minstrels, [who have] the nature of maintainers.
I weep (saddest anger)
bright tears [caused by a girl with the look] of a gem for a
radiant girl,
and Mary does not know (constant word of fame)
36 of me weeping tears for riches,
for there is not (fair and pleasant custom)
a Welsh land of Welsh speech
where I may not get (may I be of sparkling language,
40 a fervent youth) payment for my work.
But there is not to be had from amongst her peers
under the sun's border a girl like her.
I have been deceived about my candle,
44 Morfudd Llwyd, the colour of daylight.