The Seafarer

‘my troubled home On many a ship has been the heaving (gewealc) waves,

Where grim night-watch has often been my lot (bigeat)’

‘my feet were bound by frost

In icy bonds while worries simmered hot’

‘hung round

by icicles’

‘There I heard nothing

But the resounding (hlimman) sea, the ice-cold waves’

‘Sometimes I made the song of the wild swan […] or the gannet’s call, the cry

Of curlews for (fore) the missing mirth of men, The singing gull instead of mead in hall’

‘The tern replied, the horn-beaked eagle shrieked.

I had no patron there who might have soothed My desolate spirit’

‘And yet the heart’s desires Incite me now that I myself should go

On the towering seas among the salt waves’ play And all the time the heartfelt wishes urge The spirit to venture’

‘His mind dwells not on the harmonious harp, On ring-receiving, or the joy of woman,

Or worldly hopes, or anything apart From the relentless rolling of the waves’

‘He who goes to sea must ever yearn. The groves bear blossom, cities grow more bright,

Fields become beautiful, the world speeds up’

‘The cuckoo calls

With boding voice’

‘Even now my heart Journeys beyond its confines and my thoughts

Over the sea, across the whale’s domain, Travel afar the regions of the earth And then come back to me, greedy and longing (gifre ond graedig)’

‘Therefore for every warrior the best /

Memorial is the praise of living men’