The Girls of Llanbadarn

	I am bent with wrath,

	a plague upon all the women of this parish!

	for I've never had (cruel, oppressive longing)

4	a single one of them,

	neither a virgin (a pleasant desire)

	nor a little girl nor hag nor wife.

	What hindrance, what wickedness,

8	what failing prevents them from wanting me?

	What harm could it do to a fine–browed maiden

	to have me in a dark, dense wood?

	It would not be shameful for her

12	to see me in a bed of leaves.

	There was never a time when I did not love —

	never was any charm so persistent —

	even more than men of Garwy's ilk,

16	one or two in a single day,

	and yet I've come no closer to winning one of these

	than if she'd been my foe.

	There was never a Sunday in Llanbadarn church

20	(and others will condemn it)

	that my face was not turned towards the splendid girl

	and my nape towards the resplendent, holy Lord.

	And after I'd been staring long

24	over my feathers across my fellow parishioners,

	the sweet radiant girl would hiss

	to her campanion, so wise, so fair:

	'He has an adulterous look —

28	his eyes are adept at disguising his wickedness —

	that pallid lad with the face of a coquette

	and his sister's hair upon his head.'

	'Is that what he has in mind?'

32	says the other girl by her side,

	'While the world endures he'll get no response,

	to hell with him, the imbecile!'

	I was stunned by the bright girl's curse,

36	meagre payment for my stupefied love.

	I might have to renounce

	this way of life, terrifying dreams.

	Indeed, I'd better become

40	a hermit, a calling fit for scoundrels.

	Through constant staring (a sure lesson)

	over my shoulder (a pitiful sight),

	it has befallen me, who loves the power of verse,

44	to become wry–necked without a mate.