Medieval Poetry Translations VII by Michael R Burch

These are English translations/modernizations of Medieval poems written in Old English and/or Middle English. The Maiden’s Song aka The Bridal Morn anonymous Medieval lyric translation by Michael R. Burch The maidens came to my mother’s bower. I had all I would, that hour. The bailey beareth the bell away; The lily, the rose, the rose I lay. Now silver is white, red is the gold; The robes they lay in fold. The bailey beareth the bell away; The lily, the rose, the rose I lay. Still through the window shines the sun. How should I love, yet be so young? The bailey beareth the bell away; The lily, the rose, the rose I lay. The Vision of Piers Plowman by William Langland translation by Michael R. Burch In a summer season when the sun shone soft, I clothed myself in a cloak like a shepherd’s, In a habit like a hermit's unholy in works, And went out into the wide world, wonders to hear. Then on a May morning on Malvern hills, A marvel befell me, of fairies, methought. I was weary with wandering and went to rest Under a broad bank, by a brook's side, And as I lay, leaned over and looked on the waters, I fell into a slumber, for it sounded so merry. Soon I began to dream a marvellous dream: That I was in a wilderness, I wist not where. As I looked to the east, right into the sun, I saw a tower on a knoll, worthily built, With a deep dale beneath and a dungeon therein, Full of deep, dark ditches and and dreadful to behold. Then a fair field full of fond folk, I espied between, Of all manner of men, both rich and poor, Working and wandering, as the world demands. Some put themselves to the plow, seldom playing, But setting and sowing they sweated copiously And won that which wasters destroyed by gluttony... The Dream of the Rood anonymous Anglo-Saxon poem, circa the tenth century translation by Michael R. Burch Listen! A dream descended upon me at deep midnight when sleepers have sought their beds and sweet rest: the dream of dreams, I declare it! It seemed I saw the most wondrous tree, raised heaven-high, wound ’round with light, with beams of the brightest wood. A beacon covered in overlapping gold and precious gems, it stood fair at the earth's foot, with five gemstones brightening its cross-beam. All heaven’s angels beheld it with wonder, for it was no felon's gallows… Keywords/Tags: Maidens, song, translation, lily, rose, mother, daughter, girl, wedding, sun, young, fairies, Piers Plowman, Langland, water, dream, rood, cross, angels