Kat Godeu

I was in a multitude of forms
before I was unfettered:
I was a slender mottled sword
made from the hand.
I was a droplet in the air,
I was the stellar radiance of the stars.
I was a word in writing,
I was a book in my prime.
I was the light of a lantern
for a year and a half.
I was a bridge standing
over sixty estuaries.
I was a path, I was an eagle,
I was a coracle on the seas.
I was effervescence in drink,
I was a raindrop in a shower.
I was a sword in the hand,
I was a shield in battle.
I was a string in a harp
under enchantment for nine years,
[and] foam in water.
I was a tinder-spark in a fire,
I was a tree in a conflagration.
I am not one who does not sing
I have sung from infancy.
I sang in the treetops
before the ruler of Britain.
I pierced the stall-fed horses
of the one(s) wealthy in fleets.
I pierced a great-scaled beast:
there were a hundred heads on him,
and a fierce battalion
beneath the root of his tongue;
and another battalion is
in [each of] his napes.
A black forked toad:
a hundred claws on him.
A speckled crested snake:
a hundred souls, on account of [their] sin,
are tortured in its flesh.
I was in the Fort of Nefenhyr:
herbage and trees were attacking.
Poets were sings;
soldiers were attacking.
A resurgence for the Britonds
was effected by Gwydion.
He called on the lord,
on Christ the omnipotent
so that He might delivery them—
their Lord who had made them.
God answered thim,
‘By means of language and [materials of] the earth
fashion majestic trees,
a hundred forces into a host,
and impede the vigorous one,
the wealthy battle-dispenser.’
When the trees were conjured up —
?an unexpected [source of] hope —
the trees hewed down [the enemy]
by means of [their] powerful tendrils.
They were attacking around the armies
for thirty days of battle.
Sorely groaned a woman,
[and] lamentation broke forth.
At the head of the line. . . .
the spoil [was] the buck/cow of Anhun.
It caused us no disaster
the blood of men up to our thighs.
The greatest of the Three Cataclysms
which came to pass in the world:
and one came about
as a result of the story of the Flood,
and [the second was] Christ’s Crucifixion
and [the third is] The Day of Judgement to come.
Alder at the head of the line
struck first;
Willow and Rowan
were slow [joining] the army.
Spiky Blackthorn
eager for slaughter.
The skilful Medlar-tree,
an anticipator of battle.
Rose advanced
against the wrathful host.
Raspberry took action:
he did not make a defensive palisade
in order to protect [his] life.
Privet and Honeysuckle,
and Ivy, despite his appearance,
how fiercely [did they go] into the fray!
Cherry made a commotion.
Birch, desite his great intention,
was slow to put on armour.
not because of his cowardice,
but rather because of his greatness.
Holden Rod maintained [his] resolve —
foreigners over foreign torrents.
Pine in the place of honour
contention in the shape of branches.
Ash wrought magnificent deads
before princes.
Elm, despite his wealth,
did not veer a foot:
he slashed the centre [of the army],
and the wing and the rear.
Hazel adjudged
the weapons for the conflict.
Blessed Dogwoodk,
the bull of battle, lord of the fray,
. . . . . .
Beech flourished,
Holly grew verdant;
he was present in battle.
Whitethorn the skilful/famous:
[dispensing] pestilence from his hand.
Vine the destroyer
hewed in the fray.
Bracken the pillager;
Broom in the van of the battalion
was wounded in the churned-up ground.
Gorse was not fortunate
[but] despite that, he was marshalled.
Heather the famous ?victor
was enchanted into the army.
. . . .[was] a pursuer.
Oak swift of shout:
Heaven and Earth trembled before him.
Woad, a brave warrior,
his name in a wax tablet.
The attack of the sickly tree
caused terror:
he would repulse, he repulsed,
[and] stabbed others.
Pear wrought oppression
on the battle-field.
A terrifying array
[was] the surging Clover.
Bashful Chesnut,
a opponent [in the ranks of] the strong trees.
Black is jet,
rounded is a mountain,
armed is the stag/are trees,
swifter are the great seas
since I heard the battle-cry.
The top of the Birch put forth leaves for us,
[its] vigour reinforced us;
the top of the Oak ensnared us
by means of the “Maeldderw’s Song’.
The laughing one [i. e. the sea-wave] that covers the rock
[is like] a lord who takes no account of the shoal.
It was not from a mother and a father
that I was made.
And my creation was created for me
from nine forms of consistency:
from fruit, from fruits,
from God’s fruit in the beginning;
from primroses and flowers,
from the blossom of trees and shrubs,
from earth, form the sod
was I made,
from nettle blossom,
from the ninth wave’s water.
Math created me
before I was completed.
Gwydion fashioned me —
great enchantment wrought by a magic staff;
by Eurwys, by Euron,
by Euron, by Modraon;
by five enchanters —
of a kind like godparents —
was I reared.
A ruler fashioned me
when there would have been a burning extent.
The wisdom of sages fashioned me
before the world [was made],
when I had being,
when the extent of the world was still small.
A fair poet, of unusual gifts,
I control in song
what which the tongue utters.
I played in the light, I slept [wrapped in] purple.
I was in the citadel
with Dylan Son of the Sea,
my bed in the interior [of the fort]
between the knees of the kings.
My two keen spears:
from Heaven did they come.
In the streams of Annwfn
they come ready for battle.
Four score hundred men
did I pierce despite their rapacity.
They are no older, they are no younger
than me in their passions.
The passion of a hundred ?had everyone
and nine hundred did I myself have.
My stained sword
brings me honourable bloodshed.
… from the burial in which he was,
by a meek one was the boar slain.
He made, he remade,
he made languages/peoples.
Radiant his name, strong his hand,
brilliantly did he direct a host; they were scattering in sparks
from a drop in the heights.
I was a speckled snake on a hill,
I was a viper in a lake,
I was a billhook [wielded] by Cynocephali.
I was a stout hunting shaft.
My chasuble and my vessel
do I prepare well.
Four score [clouds] of smoke
does [the vessel] bear to all:
five fifty handmaidens
is its worth together with my knife.
Six yellow horses:
a hundred times better is
my steed, Melyngan, as swift as a seagull!
I myself am not sluggish
between the sea and the shore:
I caused a bloodbath
for nine hundred picked warriors.
My round shield is of ruby,
my shield-ring is gold.
There was not born in the breach …
and now [?no-one] visits me
except Goronwy
from the water-meadows of Edrywy.
Long and slender my fingers,
I have not been a herdsman for a long time [now].
I passed into [the form of] a champion
before I was a man of letters.
I underwent transformations, I circulated,
I slept on the hundred islands; I sojourned in a hundred citadels.
Sages, wise men,
prophesy Arthur!
There is something which has been before
[and] they sang of that which has been:
and one came about
because of the story of the Flood,
and [the second was] Christ’s Crucifixion
and [the third is] The Day of Judgement to come.
[Like] a magnificent jewel in a gold ornament
thus am I resplendent
and I am exhilarated
by the prophecy of Virgil.