Taliesin > Quotes

“Dechymic pwy yw.
Creadt kyn dilyw.
Creadur kadarn
Heb gic heb ascwrn.
Heb wytheu heb waet.
Heb pen aheb traet.
Ny bed hyn ny byd ieu.
No get y dechreu.
Ny daw oe odeu
Yr ofyn nac agheu.
Ny dioes eisseu
Gan greaduryeu.

Guess who it is.
Created before the deluge.
A creature strong,
Without flesh, without bone,
Without veins, without blood,
Without head, and without feet.
It will not be older, it will not be younger,
Than it was in the beginning.
There will not come from his design
Fear or death.
He has no wants
From creatures.”
― Taliesin

“To pay flattery their country will bleed.”
― Taliesin

“Monks congregate like dogs in a kennel,
From contact with their superiors they acquire knowledge,
Is one the course of the wind, is one the water of the sea?
Is one the spark of the fire, of unrestrainable tumult?
Monks congregate like wolves,
From contact with their superiors they acquire knowledge.
They know not when the deep night and dawn divide.
Nor what is the course of the wind, or who agitates it,
In what place it dies away, on what land it roars.”
― Taliesin

“Hoarding kings are to be pitied in their lifetime
when they can't take their riches
to the grave.

- Gwallawg is Other”
― Taliesin, Taliesin Poems

“I saw mighty men
On their way to battle,
I saw blood on the ground
As the swords rush forward,
The dawn's wings growing blue
As the spears took flight.”
― Taliesin, The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain

“Waves will break over stones,
Land conquered by the sea.
[There will be] no slope nor valley,
No hill nor hollows,
Nor shelter when it freezes
And the win grows angry.”
― Taliesin, The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain

“From sea's wide spring || out flows the tide:
It advances, retreats, || it smashes, crushes.
The lament for Cú Roí || has distressed me;
The cold silencing, of a hard man || full of passion:
I've seldom heard || of greater misfortune.”
― Taliesin, The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain

“Better a slave in Dyfed than a yeoman in Deudraeth!”
― Taliesin, The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain

“It is death's || sad sleep || that I grieve.
For the court, || and Cunedda's || shroud.
I long for || a sea inlet, || for the sea's flow,
For the herd || and hearth || I'm longing.”
― Taliesin, The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain