Translations into English Verse from the Poems of Davyth ap Gwilym/The Bird that guides
THE BIRD
THAT GUIDES HIM TO THE BOWER OF MORVYTH.
DESCRIPTION OF HER BOWER.
He declares in his usual style that, if the month of May should return once more, he would demand from Morvyth a fulfilment of her pledges to meet him in the green woods, and that he would trace out her arbour with the same speed and sagacity that the deer is tracked by hound and huntsman. He gives the following fanciful description of his companion in the pursuit.
By the welkin’s side
Floats my airy guide,
With unrivall’d skill
And intonations sweet,
Indicating still
Whither Essyllt’s feet
Through the forest glade
From my sight have stray’d,
And with comic lay
Calls on her to stay!
But for grief I could have smiled
At that warbler’s frolics wild;
And when I wept and felt despair,
And fear’d I ne’er should find the fair,
He carroll’d forth a noble strain,
With silvery voice to soothe my pain;
But when he reach’d a certain grove,
He would not rove!
But o’er it all enraptur’d hung,
And all his choicest stanzas sung,
And to it like an anchor clung!
It was a glorious sight
To see the bird alight,
When first he found amid the woods of May
The maid with locks like gold upon the forest spray!
He then describes the bower in which they found Morvyth; it appears to have been formed of one birch tree: his description of the appearance of the sunbeams glancing through the leaves is very beautiful.
On the cliff her birch bower stands,
Tower unformed by axe or hands;
Noble mansion soaring high,
On one pillar—to the sky;
True affection’s verdant shrine,
Where I’ve met the girl divine!
Flickering through its leafy caves,
Fitful sunbeams round us roll’d
Many a transient band of gold—
Gorgeous ridges like the waves—
Or rich coins that come and fly,
Whilst the girl with pale blue eye
Cast upon her lovesick bard
Many a bright and fond regard!