Page:The Mabinogion.djvu/517

488 What meat, what drink,

What roof his shelter;

What the first impression

Of his primary thinking;

What became his clothing;

Who carried on a disguise,

Owing to the wilds of the country,

In the beginning?

Wherefore should a stone be hard;

Why should a thorn be sharp-pointed?

Who is hard like a flint;

Who is salt like brine;

Who sweet like honey;

Who rides on the gale;

Why ridged should be the nose;

Why should a wheel be round;

Why should the tongue be gifted with speech

Rather than another member?

If thy bards, Heinin, be competent,

Let them reply to me, Taliesin."

And after that he sang the address which is called "The Reproof of the Bards."

If thou art a bard completely imbued

With genius not to be controlled,

Be thou not untractable

Within the court of thy king;

Until thy rigmarole shall be known,

Be thou silent, Heinin,

As to the name of thy verse,

And the name of thy vaunting;

And as to the name of thy grandsire

Prior to his being baptized.

And the name of the sphere,

And the name of the element,

And the name of thy language,

And the name of thy region.

Avaunt, ye bards above,

Avaunt, ye bards below!

My beloved is below,

In the fetter of Ariansod

It is certain you know not

How to understand the song I utter,

Nor clearly how to discriminate

Between the truth and what is false;