The HyperTexts
The Husband's Lament: Modern English Translation, Summary, Analysis, Theme, Tone, Quotations, Authorship and Review
"The Husband's Lament" also known as "The Husband's Message" is an Old English
(i.e. Anglo-Saxon) poem
from the Exeter Book, the oldest extant English poetry anthology. "The
Husband's Lament" may or may not be a reply to "The Wife's Lament," another
poem in the same collection. The Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes and the
poem is generally considered to be written in the form of a riddle (I will
provide the solution), but its focus is on persuading a pledged bride or lover
to join her husband or betrothed and fulfill her promises to him.
The Exeter Book has been dated to 960-990 AD, so the poem was probably
written no later than the tenth century, and perhaps earlier. The version below
is my modern English translation of one of the earliest poems of English
antiquity. There are links to other translations below the poem, including the
evocative Anglo-Saxon classic "Wulf and Eadwacer."
The latter is perhaps the first English poem by a female poet that remains known
to us today ... unless "The Wife's Lament" is even more ancient!
The Husband's Message or The Husband's
Lament
anonymous Old English poem, circa 960-990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
See, I unseal myself for your eyes only!
I sprang from a seed to a sapling,
waxed great in a wood,
was given knowledge,
was ordered across saltstreams in ships
where I stiffened my spine, standing tall,
till,
entering the halls of heroes,
I honored my manly Lord.
Now I stand here on this ship’s deck,
an emissary ordered to inform you
of
the love my Lord feels for you.
I have no fear forecasting his heart steadfast,
his honor bright, his word true.
He who bade me come carved this letter
and entreats you to recall, clad in your finery,
what you promised each other many years before,
mindful of his treasure-laden promises.
He reminds you how, in those distant days,
witty words were pledged by you both
in the mead-halls and homesteads:
how he would be Lord of the lands
you would inhabit together
while forging a lasting love.
Alas, a vendetta drove him far from his feuding tribe,
but now he instructs me to gladly give you notice
that
when you hear the returning cuckoo's cry
cascading down warming coastal cliffs,
come over the sea! Let no man hinder your course.
He earnestly urges you: Out! To sea!
Away to the sea, when the circling gulls
hover over the ship that conveys you to him!
Board the ship that you meet there:
sail away seaward to seek your husband,
over the seagulls' range,
over the paths of foam.
For over the water, he awaits you.
He cannot conceive, he told me,
how any keener joy could comfort his heart,
nor any greater happiness gladden his soul,
than that a generous God should grant you both
to exchange rings, then give gifts to trusty liege-men,
golden armbands inlaid with gems to faithful followers.
The lands are his, his estates among strangers,
his new abode fair and his followers true,
all hardy heroes, since hence he was driven,
shoved off in his ship from these shore in distress,
steered straightway over the saltstreams, sped over the ocean,
a wave-tossed wanderer winging away.
But now the man has overcome his woes,
outpitted his perils, lives in plenty, lacks no luxury,
has a hoard and horses and friends in the mead-halls.
All the wealth of the earth's great earls
now
belongs to my Lord ...
He only lacks you.
He would have everything within an earl's having,
if only my Lady will come home to him now,
if only she will do as she swore and honor her vow.
Other Anglo-Saxon/Old English poems:
The Ruin,
Wulf and Eadwacer,
The Wife's Lament,
Deor's Lament,
Caedmon's Hymn,
Bede's Death Song,
The Seafarer,
The Rhyming Poem,
Anglo-Saxon Riddles and Kennings
Prose Summary/Analysis/Theme/Plot: A woman grieves because she has been separated from her
first husband, a
ruler of some note. He forsook her and their people, after which she was exiled
and became a refugee. She accuses her husband's kinsmen of
secretly plotting to divide the couple, causing her heart to break. She further complains
that her husband
ordered her to settle in a new region, where she had no friends and felt
lost, alone and out of sorts.
She reveals how she met another man who seemed like a good match for her,
until he turned out to be a
criminal and a fraud. Because other men held her second husband in contempt, she was forced
to live in a cave. (One possible interpretation is that the "cave" is the grave,
meaning the woman lies dead and buried, and is speaking to us "from
beyond.") The wife imagines her first husband to be living a similar dark
existence and concludes by saying "woe be it to them who abide in longing."
Please note that it is not clear that the woman was formally married to either
man, nor is it absolutely clear that she had two different male lovers. Other possible interpretations
are discussed after the translation.
Authorship: The poem's author remains unknown. While it seems
likely the poet was a woman, it is possible that a man wrote the poem in a
woman's voice, from a female perspective.
Tone: The tone of the poem and the speaker's voice can be
described as: dark to the point of desolation, melancholy, miserable, mournful,
morose, plaintive, aggrieved, resentful, alienated, dejected, gloomy,
exasperated.
Narrative Structure: "The Wife's Lament" has been called an
early dramatic monologue.
Similar/Related Poems: "The Wife's Lament" is similar to "The
Wanderer" and "The Seafarer" in that they are three Old English "sea sagas" told
in the first person with considerable anguish and lamentation. "The Wife's
Lament" is similar to "Wulf and Eadwacer" in that the speakers appear to be
women who are brutally and bitterly honest about their harsh treatment by men.
It has also been postulated that "The Husband's Message" is a poetic response to
"The Wife's Lament."
Interpretation
How can we interpret "The Wife's Lament"? As Stephen Ramsay observed, "the correct interpretation of
'The Wife's Lament' is one of the more hotly debated subjects in medieval
studies." Here are a few possibilities:
(1) It has been suggested that the poem is an allegory, of the "Bride of
Christ" variety―perhaps another "Song of
Solomon."
(2) It
has been claimed that "The Wife's Lament" is a riddle ... but if so, it
seems no one has ever been able to solve it.
(3) Another interpretation is that the speaker is a "peace-weaver" (a woman
married to a king in order to resolve a dispute between two warring tribes).
(4) It may be that only one man is being
discussed, with the female speaker alternately regretting
his loss and cursing him for his unfaithfulness and cruelty.
(5) Another interpretation is that the speaker is dead, and is thus speaking to us from
beyond the grave. But there is no evidence of that kind of writing having
existed in Anglo-Saxon poetry at the time the poem was written.
In my opinion it seems best
to apply Occam's Razor and take the speaker at her word. "The Wife's Lament" and
"Wulf and Eadwacer" appear to be bitter complaints about the lot of women in a
male-dominated world. Is there any reason to read them otherwise, really?
The following are links to other translations by Michael R. Burch:
The Seafarer
Wulf and Eadwacer
Adam Lay Ybounden
Sweet Rose of Virtue
How Long the Night
Caedmon's Hymn
The Rhyming Poem
Anglo-Saxon Poems
Anglo-Saxon Riddles and Kennings
Bede's Death Song
The Wife's Lament
Deor's Lament
Lament for the Makaris
This World's Joy
Charles d'Orleans
Whoso List to Hunt
Alexander Pushkin's tender, touching poem "I Love You"
MICHELANGELO Translations by Michael R. Burch
The Love Song of Shu-Sin: The Earth's Oldest Love Poem?
Native American Poetry Translations
Tegner's Drapa
Ancient Greek Epigrams and Epitaphs
Meleager
Sappho
Basho
Oriental Masters/Haiku
Miklós Radnóti
Rainer Maria Rilke
Marina Tsvetaeva
Renée Vivien
Ono no Komachi
Allama Iqbal
Bertolt Brecht
Ber Horvitz
Paul Celan
Primo Levi
Ahmad Faraz
Sandor Marai
Vera Pavlova
Wladyslaw Szlengel
Saul Tchernichovsky
Robert Burns: Original Poems and Translations
The Seventh Romantic: Robert Burns
Poetry by Michael R. Burch
Free Love Poems by Michael R. Burch
Doggerel by Michael R. Burch
If you want to learn more about the origins of English poetry, please check out
English Poetic Roots: A Brief History of Rhyme.
For an expanded bio, circum vitae and career timeline of the translator, please click
here:
Michael R.
Burch Expanded Bio.
The HyperTexts