Yr Wylan (The Seagull)
By Dafydd ap Gwilym
Translated by Tony Conran
A fine gull on the tideflow,
All white with moon or snow,
Your beauty’s immaculate,
Shard like the sun, brine’s gauntlet.
Buoyant you’re on the deep flood,
A proud swift bird of fishfood.
You’d ride at anchor with me,
Hand in hand there, sea lily.
Like a letter, a bright earnest,
A nun you’re on the tide’s crest.
Right fame and far my dear has –
Oh, fly around tower and fortress,
Look if you can’t see, seagull,
One bright as Eigr on that wall.
Say all my words together.
Let her choose me. Go to her.
If she’s alone – though profit
With so rare a girl needs wit –
Greet her then: her servant, say,
Must, without her, die straightway.
She guards my life so wholly –
Ah friends, none prettier than she
Taliesin or the flattering lip
Or Merlin loved in courtship:
Cypris courted ‘neath copper,
Loveliness too perfect-fair.
Seagull, if that cheek you see,
Christendom’s purest beauty,
Bring to me back fair welcome
Or that girl must be my doom.
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You know how whenever you get an awesome new computer that fixes all your big problems like slowness and memory issues and storage, there are always a couple of little things that take you hours and hours to figure out how to set the way you want them? Yeah, that was my Monday. The good news is that, now that I know Dreamwidth needs an API key rather than a password and the Microsoft phone app needs to be opened on the phone before the QR code is generated, everything is working except the Send To Kindle app, which isn't a big deal, so it's good!
Other than computer set-up, arranging programs on my old computer so Paul can use it, and Monday laundry, plus the usual daily chores, I didn't get much else accomplished, but I feel like I did less yelling than usual dealing with new tech and now everything is so much faster and I can have Photoshop running while I have more than three browser tabs open! We watched some football, some baseball, and this week's Quantum Leap, which remains pretty silly but I'll give it another week. Here are some of the birds we saw on Seahurst Beach in Seattle:
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