Yesterday
The day before yesterday was wretched,
yesterday God did treat Dafydd well.
Fair yesterday (as is the nature of gifts)
4 was unlike the day before.
It's perverse (some bleak purpose)
that wise yesterday is the brother of the day before.
Oh great and glorious Mary of the previous day,
8 will there ever be such a day as yesterday?
Oh magnificent one true God,
will I ever see another yesterday as long as I live?
I bestow, surpassing the day before,
12 upon yesterday a hundred blessings.
Yesterday old Dafydd (the anguish of secret love)
got his own back through new-born passion.
After my injury (I am blind)
16 I'm tough as an apple-tree withe
that bends easily in the face of adversity
and does not snap with a heavy blow.
I have within me (joy used to be but a faint memory)
20 the soul of an old cat that shivers with cold;
however much its ribs' grey twigs are beaten and bruised,
however much it endures, it survives.
I walk slowly (anxious love that's full of guile)
24 an acre's length where others run,
and am master of a fine, dazzling feat
despite the pain, wherever that feat excels.
Where seething passion aches, far better
28 deliberation than gold, I travel far.
Oh God, does rashness do me any good?
Do they know who Pwyll is?
Far better toil (passion's swimmer)
32 than wickedness, I am brave.
Morfudd might treat her man well
at last, she of snow-bright hue.
It was proper for me to praise her,
36 if not, then may my soul go to hell!
Good night to the gently-spoken girl,
and good day for not being harsh.
I've already overcome her,
40 Aha! the wife of Bwa Bach!