Wulf and Eadwacer

		It is to my people as if one were to make them gifts.

	They will destroy him if he comes to their troop.

		Our lots are different.

	Wulf is on an island, I on another.

5	That island is a fastness surrounded by fen.

	Savage men are there on the island.

	They will destroy him if he comes to their troop.

		Our lots are different.

	I  suffered from far-wandering hopes of my Wulf.

10	It was rainy weather and I sat weeping

	when the man brave in the battle gave me shelter.

	I was so far glad, but it was also hateful to me.

	Wulf, my Wulf, it was my hopes of thee, 

	thy constant absence and my mourning heart,

15	that made me sick -- not from lack of food.

		Dost thou hear, Eadwacer ? Our wretched cub Wulf will bear to the forest.

	What never was united is easily torn asunder -- our song together.




Translated by W.S.Mackie (The Exeter Book. London 1934)