The Wanderer (poem)

From Wikiquote

The Wanderer is an anonymous elegiac Old English poem preserved in the Exeter Book. The narrator of the poem laments his fate as an unprotected man who, having lost both his lord and his family, faces a hostile world alone.

The translations used here are by Michael Alexander, and are taken from his The Earliest English Poems (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975).

Oft him anhaga      are gebideð,
metudes miltse,       þeah þe he modcearig
geond lagulade      longe sceolde
hreran mid hondum      hrimcealde sæ,
wadan wræclastas.       Wyrd bið ful aræd!
- Who liveth alone longeth for mercy,
  Maker's mercy. Though he must traverse
  Tracts of sea, sick at heart,
  – Trouble with oars ice-cold waters,
  The ways of exile – Wierd is set fast.
- Line 1

Ne mæg werig mod      wyrde wiðstondan,
ne se hreo hyge      helpe gefremman.
Forðon domgeorne      dreorigne oft
in hyra breostcofan      bindað fæste.
- No weary mind may stand against Wierd
  Nor may a wrecked will work new hope;
  Wherefore, most often, those eager for fame
  Bind the dark mood fast in their breasts.
- Line 15

Wat se þe cunnað,
hu sliþen bið sorg to geferan,
þam þe him lyt hafað leofra geholena.
- He knows who makes trial
  How harsh and bitter is care for companion
  To him who hath few friends to shield him.
- Line 29

Ongietan sceal gleaw hæle hu gæstlic bið,
þonne ealre þisse worulde wela weste stondeð.
- A wise man may grasp how ghastly it shall be
  When all this world's wealth standeth waste.
- Line 73

Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago?      Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa?
Hwær cwom symbla gesetu?      Hwær sindon seledreamas?
Eala beorht bune!      Eala byrnwiga!
Eala þeodnes þrym!      Hu seo þrag gewat,
genap under nihthelm,      swa heo no wære.
- Where is that horse now? Where are those men? Where is the hoard-sharer?
  Where is the house of the feast? Where is the hall's uproar?
  Alas, bright cup! Alas, burnished fighter!
  Alas, proud prince! How that time has passed,
  Dark under night’s helm, as though it never had been!
- Line 92

Her bið feoh læne,      her bið freond læne,
her bið mon læne,      her bið mæg læne,
eal þis eorþan gesteal      idel weorþeð!
- Wealth is lent us, friends are lent us,
  Man is lent, kin is lent;
  All this earth's frame shall stand empty.
- Line 108