"In good faith," said Gawain, "God you reward!
Great is the good glee, and game to me huge,
That one so worthy as you should wander here,
And pine you with so poor a man, and play with your knight
With such cheerful countenance, it eases my cares.
But to take the trouble to myself to true love expound,
And teach the terms and text of tales of arms
To you that, I know well, wields more skill
In that art, by the half, that an hundred of such
As I am, or shall be, on earth long as I live,
It were a folly manifold, my fair one, by my Truth.
I would your will work as I might,
As I am truly beholden, and ever-more will
Be servant to yourself, so save me Our Lord!"
Thus him tested that tempter, and tried him full oft,
For to have won him to woe, what-so she thought else;
But he defended him so fair that no fault seemed,
Nor no evil on either half, nought were they aware of
but bliss.
They lazed and laughed long;
At the last she him kissed,
Took her leave at the gong
And went her way, thank Christ.
Then rolls he right over and rises for mass,
And then their dinner was done and dearly served.
Our lad with the ladies larked all day,
But the lord over the lands lanced full oft,
Seeking his super-swine, that swept by the banks
And bit the best of his brachets their backs in sunder
Then he bode in a burrow, till bowmen found him,
And made him move his head into more open ground,
Such fell flights there flew where the folk gathered.
But he set the staunchest to start by the stands that he made,
Till at last was so whacked-out he might no more run,
But with the haste he had left he to a hollow wins
In a ravine by a rock there reigns the boar.
He got the bank at his back and began to scrape,
The froth foams at his fearsome mouth all while he,
Whets his white tusks. Willing they were not,
All the brothers so bold that by him stood
To near him (they feared him) go, of these men none dared
by oath.
He had hurt so many by then
That all there were full loath
To be more with his tusks torn,
that were brave and brutal both.
No comments:
Post a Comment