The wife's lament

The tale of my trouble, the weight of my woe, 2

Woe of the present, and woe of the past, 3

Woe never-ending of exile and grief, 4

But never since girlhood greater than now. 5

First, the pang when my lord departed, 6

Fra from his people, beyond the sea; 7

Bitter the heartache at break of dawn, 8

The longing for rumor in what far land 9

So weary a time my loved one tarried. 10

Far I wandered then, friendless and homeless, 11

Seeking for help in my heavy need. 12

With secret plotting his kinsmen purposed 13

To wedge us apart, wide worlds between, 14

And bitter hate. I was sick at heart. 15

Harshly my lord bade lodge me here. 16

In all this land I had few to love me, 17

Few that were loyal, few that were friends. 18

Wherefore my spirit is heavy with sorrow 19

To learn my beloved, my dear man and mate 20

Bowed by ill-fortune and bitter in heart, 21

Is masking his purpose and planning a wrong. 22

With blithe hearts often of old we boasted 23

That nought should part us save death alone; 24

All that has failed and our former love 25

Is now as if it had never been! 26

Far or near where I fly there follows 27

The hate of him who was once so dear. 28

In this forest-grove they have fixed my abode 29

Under an oak in a cavern of earth, 30

An old cave-dwelling of ancient days, 31

Where my heart is crushed by the weight of my woe. 32

Gloomy its depths and the cliffs that o'erhang it, 33

Grim are its confines with thorns overgrown— 34

A joyless dwelling where daily the longing 35

For an absent loved one brings anguish of heart. 36

Lovers there are who may live their love, 37

Joyously keeping the couch of bliss, 38

While I in my earth-cave under the oak 39

Pace to and fro in the lonely dawn. 40

Here must I sit through the summer-long day, 41

Here must I weep in affliction and woe; 42

Yet never, indeed, shall my heart know rest 43

From all its anguish, and all its ache, 44

Wherewith life's burdens have brought me low. 45

Ever man's years are subject to sorrow, 46

His heart's thoughts bitter, though his bearing be blithe; 47

Troubled his spirit, beset with distress— 48

Whether all wealth of the world be his lot, 49

Or hunted by Fate in a far country 50

My beloved is sitting soul-weary and sad, 51

Swept by the storm, and stiff with the frost, 52

In a wretched cell under rocky cliffs 53

By severing waters encircled about— 54

Sharpest of sorrows my lover must suffer 55

Remembering always a happier home. 56

Woeful his fate whose doom is to wait 57

With longing heart for an absent love. 58