Translations into English Verse from the Poems of Davyth ap Gwilym/To the Wind
TO THE WIND.
The bard asks the wind to be his envoy to Morvyth, the lady of his love. This poem appears to have been written when the poet was imprisoned by the influence of Morvyth’s relations, in consequence of his having rescued her from Hunchback, (see the Life of Davyth ap Gwilym at the end of this volume). This circumstance gives great beauty to the contrast which the poet draws between his own situation, and the liberty and irresistible power of the element he addresses.
Bodiless glory of the sky,
That wingless, footless, stern and loud,
Leap’st on thy starry path on high,
And chauntest ’mid the mountain cloud;
Fleet as the wave! and fetterless as light!
Tell to my body’s heart, “mine is the dungeon’s night!”
My beauteous native land to me
Is lost—as to the blinded sight;
But despot may not grapple thee,
Thou mock’st the falchion’s gleamy might,
And laugh’st, amid the citadels of morn,
The shield of pathless rock and frenzied flood to scorn!
Wind of the North! no craft may chain,
No brand may scorch thy goblin wing;
Thou scatterest with thy giant mane
The leafy palaces of Spring;
And as the naked woodlands sink and soar,
Liftest thy anthem ’mid a thousand forests’ roar!
Phantom of terror and delight!
Thousands have heard thy airy feet,
When with wild boyhood’s playful sleight
Thou fling’st the breakers’ tiny sleet;
Or o’er the storm—the oak’s dismantled height,
Seekest thy couch of waves unsearchable as night!