Page:The Mabinogion.djvu/514

Rh The work of the King of kings,

You are blundering bards,

In too much solicitude;

You cannot celebrate

The kingdom of the Britons;

And I am Taliesin,

Chief of the bards of the west,

Who will loosen Elphin

Out of the golden fetter."

Be silent, then, ye unlucky rhyming bards,

For you cannot judge between truth and falsehood.

If you be primary bards formed by heaven,

Tell your king what his fate will be.

It is I who am a diviner and a leading bard,

And know every passage in the country of your king;

I shall liberate Elphin from the belly of the stony tower;

And will tell your king what will befall him.

A most strange creature will come from the sea marsh of Rhianedd

As a punishment of iniquity on Maelgwn Gwynedd;

His hair, his teeth, and his eyes being as gold,

And this will bring destruction upon Maelgwn Gwynedd."

Discover thou what is

The strong creature from before the flood,

Without flesh, without bone,

Without vein, without blood,

Without head, without feet,

It will neither be older nor younger

Than at the beginning;

For fear of a denial,

There are no rude wants

With creatures.

Great God! how the sea whitens

When first it comes!

Great are its gusts

When it comes from the south;

Great are its evaporations

When it strikes on coasts.

It is in the field, it is in the wood,

Without hand, and without foot,

Without signs of old age,

Though it be co-aeval

With the five ages or periods