The Seafarer (poem)

"The Seafarer" is an anonymous Old English elegiac poem on the cares of the mariner's life. It dates from the 8th or 9th century. Quotes The translations used here are by Michael Alexander, and are taken from his The Earliest English Poems (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975). Þæt se beorn ne wat,sefteadig secg,      hwæt þa sume dreogaðþe þa wræclastas      widost lecgað. Blithe heart cannot know,Through its happiness, what hardships they sufferWho drive the foam-furrow furthest from land. Line 55 Simle þreora sum      þinga gehwylceær his tiddege      to tweon weorþeð:adl oþþe yldo      oþþe ecghetefægum fromweardum      feorh oðþringeð. Three things all ways threaten a man's peaceAnd one before the end shall overthrow his mind;Either illness or age or the edge of vengeanceShall draw out the breath from the doom-shadowed. Line 68 Nearon nu cyningas      ne caserasne goldgiefan      swylce iu wæron,þonne hi mæst mid him      mærþa gefremedonond on dryhtlicestum      dome lifdon. Kings are not now, kaisers are not,There are no gold-givers like the gone mastersWho between them framed the first deeds in the world,In their lives lordly, in the lays renowned. Line 82 External links Ezra Pound's free translation of The Seafarer. J. Duncan Spaeth's translation of part of The Seafarer. The Seafarer in the original Old English. https://web.archive.org/web/20120729114829/https://www8.georgetown.edu/departments/medieval/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a3.9.html The Seafarer. Verse Indeterminate Saxon 2022-11-30 Category: Poetry Category:Old English literature Category:Anonymous works