Giles Watson's poetry and prose
The Three Dead Kings: Part 4
The Three Dead Kings: Part 4
The second king stutters, that sovereign of might
Whose vigour and valour were often vaunted,
“M – methinks, m – my lords, I s – see the strangest sight
That m – men under the s – sun have ever been granted:
Three liches, all loathly, seeking lost light,
With lips all shredded, and livers rotted!
If we flee, all the city will pity our plight.
Peril besieges us. Fate has plotted
Against us – and now
I am telling you true,
Though we hunt boars, shout “Ho!”
To these ghouls we must bow,
Or run off – and rue!”
Fifteenth century Middle English alliterative poem ‘De Tribus Regibus Mortuis’, attributed to John Audelay, translated by Giles Watson. The picture shows detail from a wall-painting depicting The Three Living and the Three Dead, from Widford Church, near Burford, in the Cotswolds.
A reading is available here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P0vM-zln_o
... and whole poem, with critical notes, is here: gileswatson.deviantart.com/#/d52qz9y
The Three Dead Kings: Part 4
The Three Dead Kings: Part 4
The second king stutters, that sovereign of might
Whose vigour and valour were often vaunted,
“M – methinks, m – my lords, I s – see the strangest sight
That m – men under the s – sun have ever been granted:
Three liches, all loathly, seeking lost light,
With lips all shredded, and livers rotted!
If we flee, all the city will pity our plight.
Peril besieges us. Fate has plotted
Against us – and now
I am telling you true,
Though we hunt boars, shout “Ho!”
To these ghouls we must bow,
Or run off – and rue!”
Fifteenth century Middle English alliterative poem ‘De Tribus Regibus Mortuis’, attributed to John Audelay, translated by Giles Watson. The picture shows detail from a wall-painting depicting The Three Living and the Three Dead, from Widford Church, near Burford, in the Cotswolds.
A reading is available here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P0vM-zln_o
... and whole poem, with critical notes, is here: gileswatson.deviantart.com/#/d52qz9y