Translations into English Verse from the Poems of Davyth ap Gwilym

Nations, like winds and waves, Have their ebb and flow, And on ocean’s shores and caves Winds and waves bestow Traces of the wealth and power, That was theirs for one brief hour— Treasures cull’d from ev’ry shore They had kiss’d or wander’d o’er— Corals dug from deepest brine, England’s oak, and Norway’s pine— Grecian marbles all refined, With the opulence of mind— Wrecks of glories that appear In a youthful hemisphere Giant trees, and fruit and flow’r, Rife with Nature’s fullest pow’r! If e’en winds and waves, Ere they sever and depart, Glean from ocean’s shores and caves Gems of nature and of art— Shall we more regardless be Than the tempest and the sea Of the treasures we inherit, Of our fathers’ heart and spirit! Of the records that remain, Of their genius and their reign! Shall we not these relics save From the tempest and the wave? Snatch them from the swift decay That awaits all things of earth; Bind them in a wreath that may Soften sadness—hallow mirth!