Basaleg
Go, lad, admire the superb greenery -
fair splendid world - under a verdant covering of
birch-trees;
from Glamorgan bear tidings
4 to Gwynedd, a path laid out with mead,
and I'm well loved, the world's bright joy,
and greet the land of Môn.
Say - I've been barred from my own land,
8 God knows, you're not to blame -
that for some time (Solomon's psalm)
I've been courting someone up above Cardiff.
My fortune is not sordid or perverse,
12 it is not love for some slender, smooth-lipped maid,
it's true love for Ifor that's overwhelmed me,
greater than the love for any mistress.
I have praised Ifor's love,
16 which is unlike that of a stupid Englishman,
and I'll not go (most perfect lord)
if he so requests, for the love of Ifor,
a single day to wicked towns,
20 nor a single night from Glamorgan.
Is it not agreeable before a host
to love poets who shoot at a clear target?
A venerable and wealthy hawk,
24 a sturdily built man upon a horse.
A man descended from a splendid lord,
gold-helmed, extremely generous, with a fine retinue;
an accomplished army-feller, swift and ardent,
28 a superb wise falcon, master of debate;
an undying stag, he does not suffer the English,
all men would find him very true;
modest and well-spoken,
32 all are worthless compared with fair Ifor.
A great honour has befallen me:
if I live, I'm allowed
to hunt with hounds (there's no lord more generous)
36 and to drink with Ifor,
and shoot at splendid, straight-running stags
and cast hawks to the wind and sky,
and have poems from fine tongues
40 and amusement at Basaleg;
and play backgammon and chess
on equal terms with that mighty man.
If one (courteous consent)
44 should defeat the other, most refined,
I'll reward him fluently with a poem,
I'll receive even more before Ifor.
No one's generous given the like of him,
48 no one's brave; is he not a king?
I won't leave his court, fearless lord,
no one is loyal but Ifor.