Taliesin

Quotes

1. Sure-hoofed is my steed in the day of battle:

   The high sprigs of alder are on thy hand:

   Bran by the branch thou bearest

   Has Amathaon the good prevailed.

2. 

   I have been a course, I have been an eagle.

   I have been a coracle in the seas:

   I have been compliant in the banquet.

   I have been a drop in a shower;

   I have been a sword in the grasp of the hand

   I have been a shield in battle.

   I have been a string in a harp,

   Disguised for nine years,

   in water, in foam.

   I have been sponge in the fire,

   I have been wood in the covert

3. 

   I saw a feeding about a lion for plants,

   I saw leaves of luxuriant growth.

   I saw a branch with equal blossoms.

   Did I not see a prince? most liberal his customs,

   I saw the ruler of Cathraeth beyond the plains

   Be my oak the gleaming spirit of the Cymry.

4. 

   Songs and minstrels.

   And the hymns of angels,

   Will raise from the graves,

   They will entreat from the beginning.

   They will entreat together publicly,

   On so great a destiny.

   Those whom the sea has destroyed

   Will make a great shout,

   At the time when cometh

   He, that will separate them.

5. 

   I have been in a multitude of shapes,

   Before I assumed a consistent form.

   I have been a sword, narrow, variegated,

   I will believe when it is apparent.

   I have been a tear in the air,

   I have been the dullest of stars.

   I have been a word among letters,

   I have been a book in the origin.

   I have been the light of lanterns,

   A year and a half.

   I have been a continuing bridge,

   Over three score river mouths.

6. 

   The love-diffusing [Lord] will separate us.

   The land of worldly weather,

   A wind will melt the trees:

   There will pass away every tranquillity

   When the mountains are burnt.

   There will be again inhabitants

   With horns before kings;

   The mighty One will send them,

   Sea, and land, and lake.

   There will be again a trembling terror,

   And a moving of the earth,

   And above every field,

   And ashes the rocks will be;

   With violent exertion, concealment,

   And burning of lake.

7. 

   O God, the God of formation,

   Ruler, strengthener of blood.

   Christ Jesus, that guards.

   Princes loud-proclaiming go their course

   For a decaying acquisition.

8. 

   The heath was victorious, keeping off on all sides.

   The common people were charmed,

   During time proceeding of the men.

   The oak, quickly moving,

   Before him, tremble heaven and earth.

   A valiant door-keeper against an enemy,

   his name is considered.

   The blue-bells combined,

   And caused a consternation.

   In rejecting, were rejected,

   Others, that were perforated

9. 

   Eagle of the land, extensive thy glance.

   I would have requested an active courser

   Of vigorous trot, the price of the spoil of Taliesin.

   One is the violent course on the bottom and the summit,

   One is the gift of a baron to a lord.

   One is the herd of stags in their fight.

   One is the wolf not covetous of broom,

   One is the country where a son is born,

   And of one form and one sound is the battle-place of warriors.

10. 

    Ruler of heaven, Ruler of every people!

    We knew not, O Christ! that it was thou.

    If we had known thee,

    Christ, we should have refrained from thee.

11. 

    Am I not with hosts making a din?

    I would not cease, between two hosts, without gore.

    Am I not he that is called Gorlassar?

    My belt was a rainbow to my foe.

12. 

    Pleasant, the word that utters the Trinity;

    Also pleasant, extreme penance for sin.

    Pleasant, the summer of pleasantness;

    Communion with the Lord, in the day of judgment.