If this small collection has the good fortune to merit the attention of the public, I may, in some future time, if God permit me life and health, proceed to translate other select pieces from the same manuscript. The poems, in the original, have great merit; and if there is none in the translation of this specimen, it must be owing entirely to my inability to do the Bards justice. I am not the only person who admires them: men of the greatest sense and learning in Wales do the same. It must be owned, that it is an arduous task to bring them to make any tolerable figure in a prose translation; but those who have any candour, will make allowances. What was said of poetry in general by one of the wits, that _it is but Prose run mad_, may very justly be applied to our Bards in particular: for there are not such extravagant flights in any poetic compositions, except it be in the Eastern, to which, as far as I can judge by the few translated specimens I have seen, they bear a great resemblance. I have added a few Notes, to illustrate some historical facts alluded to in the poems, and a short account of each poem, and the occasion it was written upon, as far as it could be traced from our ancient manuscripts. I have been obliged to leave blanks in some places, where I did not understand the meaning in the original, as I had but one copy by me, which might be faulty. When I have an opportunity to collate it with other copies, I may clear these obscure passages. SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT WELSH POETRY. _A_ POEM _composed by Owain Cyveiliog_, _prince of Powys_, _entitled by him_ HIRLAS, _from a large drinking horn so called_, _used at feasts in his palace_. _He was driven out of his country by Owain Gwynedd_, _prince of North Wales_, _and Rhys-ap-Griffydd-ap-Rhys-ap-Tewdwr_, _prince of South Wales_, A.D. 1167, _and recovered it_, _by the help of the Normans and English_, _under Henry the second_. _He flourished about_ A.D. 1160, _in the time of Owain Gwynedd and his son David_. _This poem was composed on account of a battle fought with the English at Maelor_, _which is a part of the counties of Denbigh and Flint_, _according to the modern division_. When the dawn arose, the shout was given; the enemy gave an ominous presage; our men were stained with blood, after a hard contest; and the borders of Maelor Drefred were beheld with wonder and astonishment. Strangers have I driven away undaunted from the field with bloody arms. He that provokes the brave man, ought to dread his resentment. Fill, cup-bearer, fill with alacrity the horn of Rhys, in the generous prince’s hall; for Owain’s hall was ever supported by spoils taken from the enemy; and in it thou hearest of the relief of thousands. There the gates are ever open.