The Ruin

	'You, broken bare–arsed cottage

	between moor and fallow land,

	woe those who saw you, so they think,

4	as a homely dwelling once,

	and who see you today with shattered roof,

	a wreck of a house under bare joists.

	There was a time too by your fine wall,

8	painful chastisement,

	when it was more pleasant inside

	than as you are now, you wretched frame,

	when I saw, I sang praise brilliantly,

12	in your corner, a fair one there,

	a shapely maiden, she was noble and gentle,

	lying side by side [with me],

	and each one's arm, I will always remember her,

16	wrapped tight around the other:

	the girl's arm, radiance of fine snow,

	under the ear of the champion of praise,

	and my arm, simple tricks,

20	under the left ear of the lovely sophisticated girl.

	The gay ones had a happy time under your sturdy beams,

	and today is not that day'.

	'My complaint, strong enchantment of a host,

24	is about the course of the wild wind.

	A storm from the heart of the east

	did batter the stone walls.

	The sigh of the south wind,

28	fierce course, turned me into a ruin'.

	'Was it the wind which caused the late devastation?

	Well did it winnow your roof last night.

	Harshly did it break your joists.

32	The world is ever a terrible enchanter.

	Your corner (my two grievous cries)

	was a bed for me, not a pig sty.

	Yesterday you were in good condition,

36	snug above my gentle darling.

	It cannot be denied, by Peter,

	today you are without beam or roof.

	Various matters cause sudden madness.

40	Is this broken cottage some sort of delusion?'

	'A lot of people have gone to their graves, Dafydd,

	due to the work of the [fairy] horde. The way of life was good'.