I just tried it again Judy and it was working it does though state that the
site is in transition and asks readers to 'bear with us' so I guess that
wobblies occur.
In the meantime, here's the first 10 verses, with much cwaething from God:
On angynne gesceop God heofenan and eorðan. *2* Seo eorðe soðlice wæs idel
ond æmti, ond þeostra wæron ofer ðære nywelnysse bradnysse; ond Godes gast
wæs geferod ofer wæteru.
*3* God cwæð ða, "Gewurðe leoht," ond leoht wæarð geworht. *4*God geseah ða
ðæt hit god wæs, ond he todælde þæt leoht fram ðam ðystrum. *5* Ond het ðæt
leoht dæg ond þa ðystru niht: ða wæs geworden æfen ond merigen an dæg.
*6* God cwæð ða eft, "Gewurðe nu fæstnys tomiddes ðam wæterum ond totwæme ða
wæteru fram ðam wæterum." *7* Ond God geworhte ða fæstnysse, ond totwæmde ða
wæteru, ða wæron under ðære fæstnysse, fram ðam ðe wæren bufan ðære
fæstnysse: hit wæs ða swa gedon. *8* Ond God het ða fæstnysse heofenan, ond
wæs ða geworden æfen ond mergen oðer dæg.
*9* God ða soðlice cwæð, "Beon gegaderode ða wæteru ðe synd under ðære
heofonan ond æteowige drignys." Hit wæs ða swa gedon. *10* Ond God gecygde
ða drignysse eorðan ond ðære wætera gegaderunge he het sæ. God geseah ða ðæt
hit god wæs.
2009/6/19 Judy Prince <[log in to unmask]>
> The website you've url'ed seems not to be working today.
> But you've reminded me, David, of Michael Alexander's magnificent
> translations; and in particular "The Dream of The Rood", in, as he
> explains,
> the well known 'riddle' form of "I saw" and "I am"---the subject's name to
> be riddled out; and the subject itself 'speaking', as well.
> This can be got at Google Books for Michael Alexander's *The Earliest
> English Poems* [very recently reissued, retitled to *The First English
> Poems*, with translations unchanged, the rest revised].
>
> Since Google Books texts cannot be cut and pasted into an email message,
> I'll type out the first many lines. They recall to me Alexander's
> poet-power, as well as the sounds and forms I love the very most in poetry:
>
> The Dream of The Rood
>
> "Hwaet!
>
> A dream came to me
> at deep midnight
> when humankind
> kept to their beds
> ----the dream of dreams!
> I shall declare it.
>
> It seemed I saw the Tree itself
> borne on the air, light wound about it
> ----a beam of brightest wood, a beacon clad
> in overlapping gold, glancing gems
> fair at its foot, and five stones
> set in a crux flashed from the crosstree.
>
> Around angels of God
> all gazed upon it,
> since first fashioned fair.
> It was not a felon's gallow,
> for holy ghosts beheld it there,
> and man on mould, and the whole making shone for it
> -----signum of victory!
>
> Stained and marred,
> stricken with shame, I saw the glory-tree
> shone out gaily, sheathed in yellow
> decorous gold; and gemstones made
> for their Maker's Tree a right mail-coat."
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Oh glorious stuff!! says Judy
>
>
> 2009/6/19 David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > By the Dorsetshire monk Aelfric:
> >
> > *8* Eft ða ða God com, ond hi gehyrdon his stemne ðær he eode on
> > neorxnawange ofer midne dæg, ða behydde Adam hine, ond his wif eac swa
> > dyde,
> > fram Godes gesihðe on middam ðam treowe neorxnanwonges. *9* God clypode
> ða
> > Adam, ond cwæð "Adam, hwær eart ðu?"
> > or
> >
> > *20* Ða gesceop Adam naman his wife, Eua, ðæt is lif, for ðan ðe heo is
> > ealra libbendra modor.
> >
> > As this is Etc for those who don't know it , or do, the beautifully
> homely
> > late Anglo-Saxon translation of Genesis is available at:
> > http://wordhord.org/nasb/
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > David Bircumshaw
> > "Nothing can be done in the face
> > of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
> > Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> > http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> > The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> > Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
> >
>
--
David Bircumshaw
"Nothing can be done in the face
of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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