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All birds that skim the mountain’s head
Please thy white paunch and lordly gums;
Though wisdom dwells in thine own yellow sconce,
Yet, reynard, list to friendly tale for once:
The beauteous Elen^[1] of my heart,
Fair as the waxen forms of art,
I love with all devotion true—
But, ah! another loves her too!
A rival—mid wild Snowdon dwelling,
A minstrel of his Awen^[2] vain,
But still a bard, most bards excelling,—
Of him, sir envoy, I complain!
Dog of the earth, three choicest geese,
With a good lamb of fairest fleece,
To thee I’ll give—then mid the fern,
By Dol thy wages neatly earn;
But be penurious of thy sounds,
Beware of Eithig^[3] and his hounds!
And when the worm-fed bird appears,
Then homeward chase from grove to grove,
And seize and slay with dental sheers,
The bright deluder of my love!

1. Elen, the Roman British empress; her name is often poetically applied to the ladies of their love by the bards.
2. ‘Awen,’ poetical inspiration.
3. ‘Eithig,’ jealousy, applied by the bards to their rivals.

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