The Black Friar's Warning
I am considering the offensive words
of the patriarch yonder to see if they offer any profit.
God alone can understand the black friars,
4 sense proclaimed loudly.
And these friars with their deceitful faith
are a plague over the whole world,
pale brotherhood, contemporaries,
8 ever under the yoke in pairs.
I was given a nasty spiel
by the friar with the vicious mouth
seeking (no easy coupling)
12 to corrupt me with his insolence.
This is how the friar
with the sombre brass tongue counselled:
'Consider when you see the girl
16 how soon she will turn to dust.
She will certainly become
a worthless corpse in the earth'.
'Though she go into the wide earth,
20 black-red brother, the lovely bright flesh
will not become ugly, but rather
the same colour as fine lime, proud countenance'.
'Your love for the slim bright girl,
24 with golden head-dress on fine long hair,
that will send you to the boiling pot,
and you will never get out of the pot of torment'.
Then I said to him,
28 'Black friar, yes, you worm, shut up!
It's a shameful deed for you
to make a man sad on account of death.
Despite your persistent lies
32 and your terrible words and your insolent talk,
shame on me if Dafydd refuses
ten of the fair sex in a single day'.