Monge sindon geond middangeard
unrīmu cynn, [_þāra_] þe wē æþelu ne magon
ryhte āreccan nē rīm witan;
þæs wīde sind geond wor[_u_]l[d] innan
5 fugla and dēora foldhrērendra
wornas widsceope, swā wæter bibūgeð
þisne beorhtan bōsm, brim grymetende,
sealtȳpa geswing.
Wē bi sumum hȳrdon
wrǣtlīc[_um_] gecynd[_e_] wildra secgan,
10 fīrum frēamǣrne, feorlondum on,
eard weardian, ēðles nēotan,
æfter dūnscrafum. Is þæt dēor Pandher
bi noman hāten, þæs þe niþþa bear[n],
* * * * *
Of living creatures many are the kinds
Throughout the world--unnumbered, since no man
Can count their multitudes, nor rightly learn
The ways of their wild nature; wide they roam,
These beasts and birds, as far as ocean sets
A limit to the earth, embracing her
And all her sunny fields with salty seas
And toss of roaring billows.
We have heard
From men of wider lore of one wild beast,
Wonderful dweller in a far-off land
Renowned of men, who loves his native glens
And dusky caverns. Him have wise men called
* * * * *
Many, yea numberless, are the tribes throughout the world whose natures
we can not rightly expound nor their multitudes reckon, so immense are
the swarms of birds and earth-treading animals wherever water, the
roaring ocean, the surge of salt billows, encompasses the smiling bosom
of earth.
We have heard about one marvelous kind of wild beast which inhabits, in
lands far off, a domain renowned among men, rejoicing there in his home
amid the mountain-caves. This beast is called panther, as the learned
* * * * *
wīsfæste weras, on gewritum cȳþa[_ð_]
15 bi þām ānstapan.
Sē is ǣ[_g_]hwām frēond,
duguða ēstig, būtan dracan ānum;
þām hē in ealle tīd andwrāð leofaþ,
þurh yfla gehwylc þe hē geæfnan mæg.
Ðæt is wrǣtlīc dēor, wundrum scȳne,
20 hīwa gehwylces. Swā hæleð secgað,
gǣsthālge guman, þætte Iōsēphes
tunece wǣre telga gehwylces
blēom bregdende, þāra beorhtra gehwylc,
ǣghwæs ǣnlīcra, ōþrum līxte
25 dryhta bearnum, swā þæs dēores hīw,
blǣc, brigda gehwæs, beorhtra and scȳnra
wundrum līxeð, þætte wrǣtlīcra
ǣghwylc ōþrum, ǣnlīcra gīen
and fǣgerra, frætwum blīceð,
30 symle sellīcra.
Hē hafað sundorgecynd,
* * * * *
The panther, and in books have told of him,
The solitary rover.
He is kind,
A bounteous friend to every living thing
Save one alone, the dragon; but with him
The panther ever lives at enmity,
Employing every means within his power
To work him evil.
Fair is he, full bright
And wonderful of hue. The holy scribes
Tell us how Joseph's many-colored coat,
Gleaming with varying dyes of every shade,
Brilliant, resplendent, dazzled all men's eyes
That looked upon it. So the panther's hues
Shine altogether lovely, marvelous,
While each fair color in its beauty glows
Ever more rare and charming than the rest.
His wondrous character is mild, and free
* * * * *
among the children of men report in their books concerning that lonely
wanderer.
He is a friend, bountiful in kindness, to every one save only the
dragon; with him he always lives at enmity by means of every injury he
can inflict.
He is a bewitching animal, marvelously beautiful with every color. Just
as, according to men holy in spirit, Joseph's coat was variegated with
hues of every shade, each shining before the sons of men brighter and
more perfect than another, so does the color of this beast blaze with
every diversity, gleaming in wondrous wise so clear and fair that each
tint is ever lovelier than the next, glows more enchanting in its
splendor, more rare, more beauteous, and more strange.