Greg Hill : Cerddi a Throsiadau / Poems and Translations
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Manawydan

 

 

A Scaffold for a Mouse

 

 Setting this up seemed mean

and was judged to be so

for it seemed to demean

 

Manawydan living in a dream

landscape with the life

conjured out of it like a flat plane

 

They moved across, Rhiannon,

Pryderi, Cigfa and he

chasing shadows to an enchanted fountain.

 

Against such powerful magic: a small

gesture enacted on this scaffold

quietly, determinedly, a model

 

Of spell-breaking – no fires on

the astral plane but calculated

unconcern in the face of persuasion

 

And a firm grip on a small thing

for a great purpose:  he would

release into the world again

 

a woman in an asses collar;

make the rivers flow again,

awaken form to its true nature:

 

Mouse to pregnant woman,

stabled horse to a mare running free,

changes real magic causes to happen.


(Based on an incident in the Third Branch of
The Mabinogi)
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