It Must Someday Be Answered by Elidir Sais

Breaking the commandments, upholding thieves,
Oppressing the poor, I know does not prosper.
Tribulation, at last, ends treacherous wrong,
Pride of riches and unjust presumption.
Think, wicked man, because it is laid down
That with God there is no disputing –
Only truth, and gentle peace,
And such true mercy as befits Him:
Before you go to your grave, look to your life,
If you do wrong, do not then marvel
When before Jesus you must pay the price
And the three hosts see what anguish it entails.
Woe to those that sin, putting their trust
In a wretched and treacherous world that will vanish!
They do not consider what really they merit,
Nor remember at all the course that they keep.
Though the pomps of this world may give pleasure,
where wonder is done, it is prayer makes the feast.

I have seen Llewellyn like Merfyn in his hosts,
And all of Wales trooped around him.
I have seen chiefs of Gwynedd and the South,
Columns of war, assembled together.
I have seen men in battle, and stallions restless,
Wine and people and the field of pastime.
Multitudes I have seen, and all the time feasting,
And the world thriving, the jarring of lords –
With a flick of the wrist, it has all gone by,
Everyone leaves this transitory time.

To have long life the rich man manages
No more that the ragged, who quarrel not at all.
With the fierce pain of mind, let man consider
While is yet time, what he wants, what he hates.
If he is blest, let him seek an unending feast,

Quiet happiness, and faith that prospers,
And not, with false accusation, try treachery –
That avails nothing, and heaven is so fair!
When one well meditates, in the penance of thought,
The pain of Eve’s false, empty lust,,
And that no sin of his own brought heaven’s Lord
To suffer the wood, the arrogant will –
Woe the unfortunate-born, sinful in deeds,
For them how hard, to see Him face to face!
He will show the scourges, and all his wounds,
And the nails, and the blood, and the cross:
‘I did all this – and you, what have you done?’
Says Christ, king of heaven; then one would need
Purity prepared, made ready for the Trinity
Against ravaging custom of wretched sin.
Alas for the misers, the men of deceitfulness,
And those that think falsely and do not pray!
They’ll see themselves set down for transgressions,
Hidden in penance, in the pains of hell,
And see all of them that are found of good substance
Enter into heaven, into their glory,
And find the happiness that shall never end,
A company blest by the freedom of grace.

by Elidir Sais
(c.1195 – 1246)
translated by Tony Conran

Additional information: Elidir Sais (ca. 1190 – ca. 1240) was a Medieval Welsh language court poet from Anglesey His sobriquet Sais (“English”) suggests he was conversant in the English language, something so unusual at the time that it earned him his nickname. It may indicate he had been forced to spend some year in exile in England.

The few surviving works by Elidir are mostly religious poems on the Holy Trinity, elegies on the death of several Welsh princes and a poem remonstrating Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, King of Gwynedd, whose aggressive policies he opposed.