Venice masks

Sunday 14 July 2019

The Song of the Wind - Taliesin

Whose idea was the wind?
Created before the deluge,
he is a powerful creature,
sans flesh, sans bone,
sans veins, sans blood,
sans head, and sans feet.
He grows nor older, nor
younger, than at the first.
Nor fear, nor death
will turn aside his purpose.
The world of the living will never
survive the need of him.
Great GOD of the whirlwinds!
whence comes his beginning?
Great the resources of Him
who made the Wind, (which
traverses) field and forest,
without hand, or foot.
Without sickness or sorrow,
he is impatient of delay.
And he is co-eval with the
five ages of the five periods.
Moreover, he is older, though
it be half a million years.
And he is as widespread
as the face of the earth.
Born he was not,
nor ever was seen.
On sea, and on land,
he neither sees, nor is seen.
He is unreliable —
he will not come when desired.
On land and sea,
he is indispensable.
He knows no restraint —
his lot has not been cast.
He comes from the four quarters;
he will brook no counsel.
He starts on his round, from the
crest of a rock in the deep.
He is loquacious, he is mute,
he is frolicksome.
He is vehement, intrepid,
when he scours the land.
He is mute, he is loquacious,
he is uproarious —
The most tumultuous
on the face of the earth.
He is good, he is evil,
he is blind : so
He is invisible —
no eye can see him.
He is evil, he is good,
he is there, he is here.
When he works confusion,
he will not repair what he does.
He will not restore what he wrecks,
and yet he is without sin.
Now wet, and now dry,
he comes frequently.
The sun's heat, and cold
affect the feel of the wind, 
which ever changes his part, 
but never is destroyed. 
Eternal Mind!
'Tis Thou that weavest
the web of all there be:
All men honour Thee
who dost chain the Wind.
However much he upheaves 
the Ocean billows
or shrieks in his violence
when he comes in gusts,
ere he touches shore, Thou speakest!
and his race is run.
May the sands cover me,
an the wind be in full career.

Taliesin (Taliessyn) (534 - 559) Wales
Translated by J. Gwenogvryn Evans
Source: Poems from the Book of Taliesin, J. Gwenogvryn Evans, Tremvan, 1915

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please keep your comments relevant and free from abusive language. Thank you. Note that comments are moderated so it may be a day or two before your comment is posted - irrelevant or abusive comments will not be published.