The Celtic Literature Collective

Usual Is the Wind
Red Book of Hergest VI

Usual is wind from the south; usual is noise
In the village; usual for the weakling to be slender;
Usual for a man to inquire after news.
Usual for a foster-child to have dainties.

Usual is wind from the east; usual for a man with swelling breast to be
Proud; usual for the thrush to be among thorns;
Usual against oppression is an outcry; 
Usual for crows to find flesh in a nook.

Usual is wind from the north; usual for maids to be
Lovely; usual, a handsome man in Gwynedd;
Usual for a prince to provide a feast;
Usual after drinking is derangement of the senses.

Usual is wind from the sea; usual for the high tide to
Overflow; usual for a sow to breed vermin;
Usual for swine to turn up the ground for earth-nuts.

Usual is wind from the mountain; usual a plash 
In the plain; usual to find thatch in the meadows;
* * * *
Usual are leaves, tender shoots, and trees.

Usual an eagle’s nest in the top of the oak, 
And in the congress-house, men of renown; 
The eye of the fond one is on whom he loves.

Usual is the day with a blazing fire in the hurried season
Of winter, with the eloquent men of spears; 
Usual for the hearth of the faithless to be a desert.

Dried is the reed; there is flood in the brook;
The commerce of the Saxon is with money;
Unhappy is the soul of the mother of unfaithful children.

The leaf is driven by the wind;
Woe to it as to its fate;
It is old-this year it was born.

Though it may be small, yet ingeniously
Do the birds build in the summit of trees;
Of equal age will be the good and the happy.

Cold and wet is the mountain; cold and gray the ice ;
Trust in God-he will not deceive thee;
Persevering patience will not leave thee long afflicted.