Oh God, the God of Formation
Book of Taliesin V
O GOD, the God of formation,
Ruler, strengthener of blood.
Christ Jesus, that guards,
Princes loud-proclaiming go their course.
For a decaying acquisition.
It will not make me without shares,
The praising thy mercy.
There hath not been here;
O supreme Ruler;
There hath not been; there will not be,
One so good as the Lord.
There hath not been born in the day of the people
Any one equal to God.
And no one will acknowledge
Any one equal to him.
Above heaven, below heaven,
There is no Ruler but he.
Above sea, below sea,
He created us.
When God comes
A great noise will pierce us,
The day of judgment terribly.
Messengers from the door,
Wind, and sea, and fire.
lightning and thunder
A number without flattery.
The people of the world groaning
Will be concealed.
A reaching arm will be brought.
Will be concealed the sea and stars,
When the Father descends,
To take vengeance with his hosts
With trumpets penetrating into the four regions.
And to set the sea on fire.
The nations of the world will be burnt,
Until they are reduced to ashes.
Was burnt the desert portion
Before his great presence.
He will draw a stream
Before his front rank.
Kings will shudder (that) day,
Woe awaits them!
When the recompenser shall appear,
Let the heaven appear below.
A ruddy wind will be brought
Out to the cinder,
Until the world is as desolate
As when created.
Saint Peter says it,
The day of the earth;
There will come a Saturday,
The earth in one furnace.
Saturday, a clear morning;
The love-diffusing (Lord) will separate us.
The land of worldly weather,
A wind will melt the trees:
There will pass away every tranquillity
When the mountains are burnt.
There will be again inhabitants
With horns before kings;
The mighty One will send them,
Sea, and land, and lake.
There will be again a trembling terror,
And a moving of the earth,
And above every field,
And ashes the rocks will be;
With violent exertion, concealment,
And burning of lake.
A wave do ye displace,
A shield do ye extend
To the travelling woe,
And violent exertion through grief.
And inflaming through fury
Between heaven and earth.
When the Trinity shall come
To the field of its majesty,
The host of heaven about it,
An extensive tribe near it,
Songs and minstrels.
And the hymns of angels,
Will raise from the graves,
They will entreat from the beginning.
They will entreat together publicly,
On so great a destiny.
Those whom the sea has destroyed
Will make a great shout,
At the time when cometh
He, that will separate them.
As many as are mine,
Let them go to the right.
Those that have done evil,
Let them go to the left side.
Do not thy passions counteract
What thy lips utter?
Thy going in thy course into valleys,
Dark without lights.
And mine were his words.
And mine were his languages.
And mine was his bright country,
And their hundred fuluesses.
The hundredth country present.
I have not been without battle.
Bitter affliction was frequent
Between me and my cousins.
Frequent trials fell
Between me and my fellow-countrymen.
There was frequent contention
Between me and the wretched.
This ever overcame me,
Man would never do it.
Those that placed me on the cross
I knew when young.
That drove me on the tree,
My head hung down.
Stretched were my two feet,
So sad their destiny.
Stretched with extreme pain
The bones of my feet.
Stretched were my two arms,
Their burden will not be.
Stretched were my two shoulders,
So diligently it was done.
Stretched were the nails,
Within my heart.
Stretched was the spiking,
Between my two eyes.
Thick are the holes
Of the crown of thorns in my head.
The lance was struck
And my side was pierced.
It will be struck to you also,
As your right hand (struck me).
To you there will be no forgiveness,
For piercing me with spears.
And the Ruler we knew not
When thou wert hung.
Ruler of heaven, Ruler of every people!
We knew not, O Christ! that it was thou.
If we had known thee,
Christ, we should have refrained from thee.
A denial will not be received
From the race of the lower country.
Ye have committed wickedness
Against the Creator.
A hundred thousand angels
Are to me witnesses,
Who came to conduct me
After my hanging,
When hanging cruelly,
Myself to deliver me
In heaven there was trembling
When I had been hung.
When I cried out Eli!1
God love-prospering above heaven.
And sing ye, the two Johns,
Before me the two primary parts.
With two books in your hands,
Beading them.
There would not come a great difficulty
And yours will be flattery,
The value of your foolish speech.
Dissolution will close
Upon you to moist Uffern.
Christ Jesus high hath founded three hundred thousand years,
Since he is in life,
And a second thousand before the cross
Shone Enoch.2
Do not the brave know
The greatness of their progeny?
A country present will meet thee,
And while it may possibly be yours,
Three hundred thousand years save one,
A short hour of the day of everlasting life.
NOTES
1. A hundred thousand angels... Eli!: Here it is Christ speaking about the crucifixion.
2. Enoch: Old Testament figure who lived 365 years and then was taken bodily to heaven. Also, is attributed an apocryphal book, popular in the Slavic countries and Ethiopia, which details the heavens and angelology.