Morfudd like the Sun
I am waiting for a soft-spoken girl,
sheen of fine snow on a stony field.
See, o God, that she is a radiant girl,
4 brighter than a crest of foam,
colour of a bright resounding wave,
an ardently bright girl, she is modest.
She knows how to earn a love song from my lips,
8 best aspect of the sun beside a cloud,
the people's mistress [or dawn] in
mantle of fine fur,
she knows well how to mock an ugly man,
lovely Morfudd, pity the weak frivolous poet
12 who loves her, beautiful Gwenhwyfar.
The girl's appearance is a golden web, woe to
that handsome man crying out in anguish.
Her deceit and trickery is enormous,
16 worse than anything, and [yet] she is my darling.
One time my white girl
appears between church and court,
and another time, proud clever girl on fortress battlements,
20 bright shining Morfudd hides,
like the sun with its bountiful fringes,
foster-mother of the principality of fine weather,
her skilled work is worthy of praise,
24 May's merchantess freely giving light,
brilliant Morfudd's great countance,
the radiant and exquisite semblance of Mary.
Over the earth's immense expanse
28 the sun comes like a dazzling girl
beautifully within the body of a single day,
shepherdess of the sky from end to end.
When the sun which dazzles sight
32 is needed (we feel great pain)
after a thick cloud passes over it,
fierce elemental war,
it escapes before the darkening
36 when the night comes, sense of harsh pain.
The dark blue sky will be completely filled,
Eluned's image, the planet's place.
No one has any idea then
40 where it goes, it is God's ball.
No hand can touch it
nor take hold of its edge.
The next day it will raise up again,
44 igniting from afar the firmament of the world.
Not dissimilar, apportioning of grief,
is the way in which Morfudd leaves me by setting:
after coming from the sky above,
48 running across the firmament below,
she of the lovely frown sets
beneath the lintel of the wicked cold man.
I pursued passion around the land
52 of Penrhyn, abode of love.
Every day the clever shining girl
is to be seen there, and every night she disappears.
It's no easier to touch her
56 on hall's floor (I have been slain)
than it is (girl freely praised and lavishly spending)
for people's hands to catch the sun.
The blazing sun with its sparkling sheen
60 has no better face than her.
If either one is most fair this year,
it is our sun, of noble lineage, which is the fairest.
Why (appearance which is a step greatly to be desired)
64 does one of them not take possession of the night,
whilst the other as splendid warmth,
good light, colours the day?
If the two faces were to appear
68 in rotation in the four corners of the world,
it would be a wonder [like that found in] a stiff-leaved
book
if night ever came during this girl's lifetime.