Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/70

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Poetic Edda

Love becomes loathing  if long one sits
 By the hearth in another's home.

36.[1] Better a house,  though a hut it be,
 A man is master at home;
A pair of goats  and a patched-up roof
 Are better far than begging.

37.[2] Better a house,  though a hut it be,
 A man is master at home;
His heart is bleeding  who needs must beg
 When food he fain would have.

38. Away from his arms  in the open field
 A man should fare not a foot;
For never he knows  when the need for a spear
 Shall arise on the distant road.

39.[3] If wealth a man  has won for himself,
 Let him never suffer in need;
Oft he saves for a foe  what he plans for a friend,
 For much goes worse than we wish.

40.[4] None so free with gifts  or food have I found
 That gladly he took not a gift,

  1. ↑ The manuscript has "little" in place of "a hut" in line 1, but this involves an error in the initial-rhymes, and the emendation has been generally accepted.
  2. ↑ Lines 1 and 2 are abbreviated in the manuscript, but are doubtless identical with the first two lines of stanza 36.
  3. ↑ In the manuscript this stanza follows stanza 40.
  4. ↑

[36]

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.