On a Misty Walk

I've here made an attempt to transcribe a thoroughly confusing 14th century poem by Dafydd ap Gwilym into prose form.

The Original Welsh:

Oed â'm rhiain addfeindeg
a wnaethwn yn dalgrwn deg,
i fyned, wedi 'mgredu,
ymaith, ac oferdaith fu.
Myn'd yn gynnar i'w haros,
egino niwl gan y nos.
Tywyllawdd wybr fantellau
y ffordd, fal pettwn mewn ffau.
Cuddiaw golwybr yr wybren,
codi niwl cau hyd y nen.
Cyn cerdded cam o'm tramwy,
ni welid man o'r wlad mwy,
na gorallt fedw, na goror,
na bronnydd, mynydd, na mor.
Och it, niwlen felenfawr,
o'th roed di, na threiut awr!
Casul o'r awyr ddulwyd,
carthen anniben iawn wyd.
Gwrthban y glaw draw drymlyd,
gwe ddu o bell a gudd y byd.
Mai tarth uffernbarth ffwrnbell,
mwg y byd yn magu o bell:
mwg ellylldan o Annwn,
abid tew ar y byd hwn.
Ucheldop adargopwe
fal gweilgi 'n llenwi pob lle.
Tew wyd a glud, tad y glaw,
tyddyn a mam wyt iddaw.
Cnwd anhygar diaraul,
clwyd forlo rhyngo' a'r haul.
nos im fydd dydd diferglwyd,
dydd yn nos, pand diddawn wyd?
Tew eiry fry'n toi ar y fron,
tud llwydrew, tad y lladron.
Gwasarn eira llon lonawr,
goddaith o'r awyr faith fawr,
ymlusgwr bwriwr barug,
hyd moelydd grinwydd a grug.
Hudol gwan yn ehedeg,
hir barthlwyth y Tylwyth Teg.
Gŵn i'r graig, gnu awyr gron,
cwmwl planedau ceimion.
Ager o donnau eigiawn,
mor wyd o Annwn, mawr iawn.
O'm blaen ar riw hagrliw hyll,
obry'n dew wybren dywyll.
Fy nhroi i fan trwstanwaith,
fal uffern, i fignwern faith,
lle'r ydoedd ymhob gobant
ellyllon mingeimion gant.
Ni chawn mewn gwern uffernol
dwll heb wrysg dywyll heb rôl.
Ni wnaf oed, anhy ydwy',
ar niwl maith, a'm anrhaith mwy.

My transcription:

I planned a date with a lovely girl. Having no intention of standing her up, I left to meet her rather early. As I set off towards our meetingplace, a mist sprouted from the ground. The world grew dark, as if the sky had become a mantle, and I was in some great lair. The heavens were obscured as the fog climbed higher, rendering my sense of direction tenuous at best. As a result, I took a most unfortunate wrong turn and found myself in a different land altogether.

The cliffside birches had washed away, and before me stood a flat plain bereft of mountains or hillsides, no distant clouds or calming seas. The great yellow mist swallowed all around me, damning me to tardiness. As I allowed myself to believe my circumstances could not worsen, a winnowing sheet of rain fell upon me as the fog turned a dark gray. The downpour came on like a black tapestry, enclosing the world. The water itself was as an infernal hellfire in vaporous form, as if it had been borne from the depths of the earth; a harrowing smog unleashed from the Otherworld - a habit draped over the Dark One.

He was before me, a great and horrid spider, his torrent filling every place. I stood in the presence of the Father of Rain, the macabre mother to the hills. I saw a sight unbeknownst to my homeland, a roost of seals on the beach betwixt myself and the sun. I trod on in awe as day turned nocturnal, the sky above transformed into great gray racks of smoke. Before me I could now see hills rising up, curtained by wrappings of snow and hoarfrost, and I felt I’d wandered into a land of thieves and miscreants.

What sin had brought me here? What trickery did I endure? Before me frost up hillocks of brushwood and heather. The snowy thresh of January soaking my boots and biting at my skin, I bore witness as the Tylwyth Teg, the Fair Family, drove off the accursed enchanter who had so despicably misguided my errand. As the mists faded away, I caught a glimpse of the spray of ocean waves on the sea which led out of Annwn, and made my way out of the Otherworld.

Here I’d found myself on its front the hill, a land of the ugliest colour, beneath the fat dark heavens. My lighthearted traipse turned to clumsy labour, like wading through hell, into a still bogmire, where in every hollow there lurks a hundred wry mouthed wisps. Into that hellish swamp I had stumbled, finding it overspread with boughs obscuring escape. However misfortunate my experience had been, it was I who resolved to go, though I won't be so bold again.