Szöveggyűjtemény a középkor angol irodalmából [antikvár]

OLD ENGLISH POETRY ELEGIES 1. THE SEAFARER I can recite a true tale about myself, tell of my adventures, howl often suffered a time of hardship during my toilsome existence on earth, how I have endured bitter care in my mind, ' known in my life's bark many abodes of suffsring, wild raging of the waves. There often fell to my lot the close night watch at the prow of the ship when tossing by the cliffs. My feet were pierced with cold, bound by the frost with cold fetters. There the cares of life lamented, hot about my heart, hunger within tore ^ the spirit of the one weary with roaming the sea. The man with whom everything goes well in the world does not realize how miserably I plied in winter the ice-cold sea, leading the life of an exile, deprived of my dear kinsmen, hung aout with icicles, the hail flying in showers. I heard nothing there but the sea, the ice-cold wave roaring; sometimes the song of the swan. I had for my entertainment the screech of the gannet and the cry of .the curlew instead of men's laughter, the screaming sea-mew instead of mead. Storms there beat the cliffs: there the icy-feathered tern gave them answer, and the deu^-feathered eagle very often cried out in resentment against that. None of my protecting kinsmen could comfort the bereaved heart. Hence he who possesses the deliglit of life, who, high-spirited an flushed with wine, endures few hardships in his castle. can little believe in what weariness I had often to dwell on the path of the sea. Night fell, snow came from the north, hoar-frost bound the soil, hail fell on the earth, coldest of seeds. Therefore my thoughts are now urging my mind to try the high seas, the tumult of the salt waves for myselfo I' ¦ - 3 - il ¦