Translations into English Verse from the Poems of Davyth ap Gwilym/To the Nun
TO THE NUN.
This nun was the daughter of the poet’s patron, Ivor. She was placed in a nunnery in consequence of an attachment that had arisen between her and the bard, while the latter was an inmate of Ivor’s household.
The dark-eyed maid my love has won,
And hence all food and rest I shun.
Oh, did my heart another prize,
None but the fool would deem me wise!
Girl of my love, and can it be,
That the luxuriant birchen tree
Of summer has no charms for thee?
That thou dost ceaselessly repeat
Thy psalter in yon still retreat?
And that, oh, star-hued maid! thou art
Of yonder holy choir a part?
Hence with the bread and water—hence
With the vile cresses—and dispense
With Pater Nosters—and give o’er
The Romish monks’ religious lore:
Join not in spring the devotees,
Groves are more bright than nunneries!
Thy vows, oh, beauty, bright and mild!
With love can not be reconciled;
The ring, the cloak, and verdant dress
Are better pledge of holiness.
Haste to the knotted birchen tree,
And learn the cuckoo’s piety;
There in the green wood will thy mind
A path to heav’n, O lady, find.
There Ovid’s volume shalt thou read,
And there a spotless life we’ll lead—
A life of liberty, where rise
The woodbines o’er the precipice.
Doubt not there too thou may’st be “shriven;”
Full “absolution” may be given;
Nor is it harder to reach heav’n,
For those who make the groves their home,
Than to the sojourners at Rome!