A Pre-Eminent Girl

	Three women with faces like gossamer

	received quite rightfully

	the lovely beauty which God of Heaven

4	gave to Eve at the time of the fortunate event.

	The first of the three radiant ones

	who received it, swift lively grace,

	was Polixena daughter of Priam,

8	splendid treasure clad in fur.

	The second was Deidameia,

	of the fine beauty of the light-expending summer sun.

	The third girl, descendant of[or one similar to] Rhun long ago,

12	was Elen Fannog, fair and slender,

	she who caused commotion

	and strife between Greece and Troy.

	The fourth, love's gorgeous beauty,

16	is the bright shining slender lovely girl

	coming fair and dignified

	into the church, golden-girdled maid,

	and crowds of people looking at her

20	in the middle [of the church], splendid shining lady,

	And me, there came to me a wish

	to ask who the lovely maid was.

	'She is sister, bright joyous moon,

24	by the same father, to the moon,

	and niece to fine sunshine,

	and her mother was the flawless dawn of day,

	and she hails from Gwynedd,

28	and she is grand-daughter of the sun in the sky.'

	No woman that I know is white,

	no lime on any grand stone chamber is white,

	no pale curling wave is white,

32	no foam of any lake nor snowdrift is white,

	no truly radiant face is white

	compared to my darling's face, by Mary!

	I would make a bet without consideration,

36	hue of a wave when turbulent water rages on the sea,

	that there is no Christian believer alive

	who could find any defect in this girl's colour,

	but that she is the height of praise,

40	God's my witness, [and] is brighter than any lamp.

	Let no Welshman wonder

	that the girl is called by the colour she is.

	Anyone who would gladly

44	forsake the girl and possess the whole world,

	may the core of his heart be churned

	by this far-reaching knife.

	The greater were my wealth

48	and my grand befitting praise,

	all the more at once would be the pain

	in the quick of my soul [because of] the memory [of her] within me.

	What good would it do me, gentlemen,

52	to forsake the girl and possess the wealth.

	There is no hope this year

	for anyone who is older than her.