Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

Anglo-Irish poems of the Middle Ages (Author: [unknown])

Poem 14

Old Age

1] Old age makes me impotent and grow completely grey. When old age intends to cut me down there is no denying it.
5] Old age will not bear news of the joys of May. When old age wishes to conquer me, my well-being is gone.
Old age will
10] grow cold and dry up like the clod of clay, with old age I must submit and hasten to my appointed day.
13] When maturity blossoms it is confident. Its condition is soon diminished. We all desire to be mature, why is old age hated?
17] I am greatly annoyed that my saliva dries up and my snout a rips. Old age twists my shape so that my shoulders grow sharp, and youth has forsaken me.
23] I cannot grope beneath a woman's skirts any more, although would still desire to do so. Since long ago I am burdened with vice and sinful behaviour, and sin has afflicted me.
29] Since long ago I am disposed to sin so that I am not able to speak about pleasant subjects with my mouth. Old age has destroyed me. I believe that he who trusts in youth is deceived.
35] In this entire fashion old age renders me useless. Thus he pulls out my teeth and draws them in misery.
I am no longer able to make love, my penis pisses on my shoes, every rascal invokes a curse upon me.
41] My head is grey and completely disfigured, coloured like a grey mare, my body grows short; when I look upon my shins, entirely wasted away, my eyes grow dim. My friends grow few in number.
47] Now I babble, I pant, I pout, I become shrivelled. I sob, I snuffle in my nose. Because of my physical nature I become weak and grow cold. I stoop, I grow lean. I become shrunken of limb, I walk with my head poked forward, I totter, I grow feeble with age, I walk like a castrated man who has saddlesores.
53] I become wrinkled, I become feeble, my mind wanders, I wander, I waste away, I crouch in two, I become crippled, I cough. In this way he wishes to subdue me.
I complain, I groan, I snarl, I grumble, I sneeze, I nod off, I snivel, I tremble. Old age desires all this [for me].
59] I stop, I stagger, I stumble like a sled drawn over rough ground. I go blind, I have bleary eyes, I snore in bed - such utterance is sent to me!
I spit, I dribble in speech, I kick, I refuse things, I grow smaller in stature, and so I grieve. In this way my wellbeing is gone.
65] My strength is spent and impaired, and I wish for desirable like fallow land I wither and grow feeble.
I was a shepherd, now I am an empty shell. Everyone is thoroughly weary of me. Such inclination is there to go in pursuit of old age!
71] Old age has taken so tight a hold on me, look, he quickly pays out misery to me.
Each tooth has twisted away from the other and is pulled from the root, the tongue nauseates, I retch with it.
Listless, I become feeble in every joint. I must be where old age is, he comes upon me under foot. Amen.