The Wife s Lament (2 translations)
(recorded in the Exeter Book, 10th/11th c.)
(translated by Richard Hamer, slightly more faithful to the Old (translated by Burton Raffel, a more poetic translation, a more
English original) subjective interpretation)
1. 1.
I sing this song about myself, full sad, This song of journeys into sorrow
2. 2.
My own distress, and tell what hardships I Is mine. I sing it. I alone
3. 3.
Have had to suffer since I first grew up, Can ravel out its misery, full-grown
4. 4.
Present and past, but never more than now; When I was, and never worse then now.
5. 5.
I ever suffered grief through banishment. The darkness of exile droops on my life.
6. 6.
For since my lord departed from this people First, my lord went away, sailed
7. 7.
Over the sea, each dawn have I had care On the tossing waves. I was left in the dawn
8. 8.
Wondering where my lord may be on land. Friendless where affection had been. I travelled
9. 9.
When I set off to join and serve my lord, Seeking the sun of protection and safety,
10. 10.
A friendless exile in my sorry plight, Accepting exile as payment of hope.
11. 11.
My husband s kinsmen plotted secretly But the man s family was weaving plans
12. 12.
How they might separate us from each other In the dark, intending to drive us apart
13. 13.
That we might live in wretchedness apart With a wedge the width of the world, condemning
14. 14.
Most widely in the world: and my heart longed. Our love to a living death. I wept.
15. 15.
In the first place my lord had ordered me My new lord sent me to live in the woods,
16. 16.
To take up my abode here, though I had Among the trees, in a land where I knew
17. 17.
Among these people few dear loyal friends; No lovers, no friends. So sadness was framed,
18. 18.
Therefore my heart is sad. Then had I found For I d matched myself with a fitting man,
19. 19.
A fitting man, but one ill-starred, distressed, Born to misfortune, blessed with sorrow,
20. 20.
Whose hiding heart was contemplating crime, His mind closed to me, mulling on murder.
21. 21.
Though cheerful his demeanour. We had vowed How gaily, how often we d fashioned oaths
22. 22.
Full many a time that nought should come between us Defying everything but death to endanger
23. 23.
But death alone, and nothing else at all. Our love; now only the words are left
24. 24.
All that has changed, and it is now as though And our friendship s a fable that time has forgotten
25. 25.
Our marriage and our love had never been, And never tells. For my well-belovŁd
26. 26.
And far or near forever I must suffer I ve been forced to suffer, far and near.
27. 27.
The feud of my beloved husband dear. I was ordered to live in a nest of leaves
28. 28.
So in this forest they made me dwell, In an earthen cave under an oak.
29. 29.
Under the oak-tree, in this earthy barrow. I writhe with longing in this ancient hole;
30. 30.
Old is this earth-cave, all I do is yearn. The valleys seem leaden, the hils reared aloft,
31. 31.
The dales are dark with high hills up above, And the bitter towns all bramble patches
32. 32.
Sharp hedge surrounds it, overgrown with briars, Of empty pleasure. The memory of parting
33. 33.
And joyless is the place. Full often here Rips at my heart. My friends are out there,
34. 34.
The absence of my lord comes sharply to me. Savouring their lives, secure in their beds,
35. 35.
Dear lovers in this world lie in their beds, While at dawn, alone, I crawl miserably down
36. 36.
While I alone at crack of dawn must walk Under the oak growing out of my cave.
37. 37.
Under the oak-tree round this earthy cave, There I must squat the summer-long day,
38. 38.
Where I must stay the length of summer days, There I can water the earth with weeping
39. 39.
Where I may weep my banishment and all For exile and sorrow, for sadness that can never
40. 40.
My many hardships, for I never can Find rest from grief nor from the famished
41. 41.
Contrive to set at rest my careworn heart, Desires that leap at unquenched life.
42. 42.
Nor all the longing that this life has brought me. May that man be always bent with misery,
43. 43.
A young man always must be serious, With calloused thoughts; may he have to cling
44. 44.
And tough his character; likewise he should To laughter and smile when sorrow is clamouring
45. 45.
Seem cheerful, even though his heart is sad Wild for his blood; let him win his pleasures
46. 46.
With multitude of cares. All earthly joy Unfriended, alone; force him out
47. 47.
Must come from his own self. Since my dear lord Into distant lands  as my lover dwells
48. 48.
Is outcast, far off in a distant land, In the shade of rocks the storm has frosted,
49. 49.
Frozen by storms beneath a stormy cliff My downhearted lover, in a desolate hall
50. 50.
And dwelling in some desolate abode Lapped by floods. His suffering drowns him:
51. 51.
Beside the sea, my weary-hearted lord How can he smother swelling memories
52. 52.
Must suffer pitiless anxiety. Of a better place? There are few things more bitter
53. 53.
And all too often he will call to mind Than awaiting a love who is lost to hope.
54.
A happier dwelling. Grief must always be
55.
For him who yearning longs for his beloved.
Husband s Message (2 translations)
(recorded in the Exeter Book, 10th/11th c.)
NB: the narrator is not a human being here, it is a piece of wood with a message carved on it.
(translated by Richard Hamer,) (translated by Burton Raffel)
1. 1.
Now will I tell to you who live apart A tree grew me; I was green, and wood.
2. 2.
How I grew up in youth among the trees. That came first. I was cut and sent
3. 3.
On me must sons of men write messages, Away from my home, holding wily
4. 4.
Send me from foreign lands across the waves, Words, carried out on the ocean,
5. 5.
Thus guide their thoughts across the salty streams. Riding a boat s back. I crossed
6. 6.
Often by boat have I sought out some land Stormy seas, seeking the thresholds
7. 7.
Where my lord sent me forth to take some message Where my master s message was meant to travel
8. 8.
Over the deep wide sea; now have I come And be known. And now the knotted planks
9. 9.
On shipboard here, and now must I find out Of a ship have brought me here, and you
10. 10.
How you feel in your heart about your love Shall read my lord s heart and hear
11. 11.
Towards my lord. For I dare promise you His soul s thought. I promise a glowing
12. 12.
That you will find great loyalty in him. Faith shall be what you find. Read.
13. 13.
He bids me tell you, then, who carved this wood, See: this wood has come to make you
14. 14.
That you, bejewelled, should yourself recall Remember the hands that carved it, to take you
15. 15.
In your own secret heart the vows and oaths Back to the love and the pledges you shared,
16. 16.
That you both made in former times together, You two, in that buried time when you both
17. 17.
When you might still together live among Could walk unharmed across this festive
18. 18.
The festive cities, both dwell in one land, Town, the land yours, and you
19. 19.
And love each other. Feud drove him away Each other s. Your people fought, and the feud
20. 20.
From this great people. Now he orders me Brougt him exile. Now he asks you
21. 21.
Himself to urge you joyfully to cross To listen for the sad cuckoo calling
22. 22.
The sea when at the hill-side s edge you hear In the grove: when its song has reached the edge
23. 23.
The cuckoo singing sad mid the grove. Of the woods, he wants you to come to him over
24. 24.
Do not let any living man deter you The waves, letting nothing lead you
25. 25.
From travelling or stay you from the journey. Aside and no man living stop you.
26. 26.
Go to the sea, the country of the gull, Go down to the sea, the gull s home,
27. 27.
And board the ship, that you may southwards thence And come to a ship that can carry you south,
28. 28.
Rejoin your man across the water s ways, Away, out on the water to where
29. 29.
There were your lord is waiting for your coming. Your husband and lord longs for your coming.
30. 30.
For in the world no stronger wish could come Nothing the world can send him, he says
31. 31.
Into his heart, he told me so himself, Through me, could bring him more delight
32. 32.
Than that almighty God should grant you both Than for Almighty God to grant him you,
33. 33.
That you may distribute together treasures And for you and he together to bless
34. 34.
And well-made rings to comrades and retainers. His friends and allies with treasure, with hammered
35. 35.
He has in his possession burnished gold Bracelets and rings. For though his home
36. 36.
Enough for him to hold a fine estate Is with strangers, he lives in a lovely land
37. 37.
Among the foreign people noble land And is rich: shining gold surrounds him.
38. 38.
And loyal warriors, though here my lord And though my master was driven from here,
39. 39.
Compelled by need pushed on his boat and left, Rushing madly down to his ship
40. 40.
And had to cross the rolling waves alone, And onto the sea, alone, only
41. 41.
Sail on the sea, and, anxious to depart, Alive because he fled, and glad
42. 42.
Stir up the water ways. Now has this man To escape, yet now he is served and followed,
43. 43.
Conquered his woes; he lacks not what he wants, Loved and obeyed by many. He has beaten
44. 44.
Horses or treasures or the joys of hall, Misery: there s nothing more he wants,
45. 45.
Or any noble treasure in this world, Oh prince s daughter, no precious gems,
46. 46.
O prince s daughter, if hew may have you. No stallions, no mead-hall pleasure, no treasure
47. 47.
About the former vows between you both, On earth, but you, you to enjoy
48. 48.
I understand he coupled in his oath In spite of the ancient threats that parted you.
49. 49.
Heaven and earth, and joined thereto himself And I fit together an S and an R,
50. 50.
That he would keep, as long as he has life, And E, an A, a W and D,
51. 51.
Truly with you the bond and pledge of faith In an oath to prove that pledge is scacred
52. 52.
Which you made frequently in former days. To him, and his faith as steady as his heart.
53.
As long as life shall be in him, he ll long
54.
To fulfill the vows and the love you shared.