Kensa blethan, byrla a’baye

Original

Kensa blethan, byrla a’baye;
Nessa blethan, lull a’laye;
Tridgya blethan, hanna drubba,
Peswarra blethan, mola Dew war ef reeg dry hy uppa

Standard Written Form

Kensa bledhen, byrla ha baya;
Nessa bledhen, loll-a-lay;
Tryja bledhen, henna der obma,
Peswora bledhen, mollath Duw war ev 'wrug [hy] drei hei obma

Translation

First year, hugging and kissing,
Second year, lullaby,
Third year, that through here,
Fourth year, God's curses on he who brought her here

Notes

• William Allen c.1704
• The poem is talking about marriage
• PBE is unsure if this is an original Cornish work or a translation from English. In 1670, John Ray published a collection of proverbs from his tour of Cornwall:

First month, smick smack!
Second month, hither thither!
Third month, thwick-thwack!
Fourth month: the devil take them that brought thee and I together.

• Tonkin translates the lines as "hug and kiss", "lull and laye", "take and bring".
• PBE gives a similar verse from O'Neill Lane's English-Irish Dictionary (1907): "When a couple are newly married the first month is all honeymoon and sweet kisses, the second shoving, third thwack, thwack, and the fourth, the devil take them that brought you and me together." (translated from Irish)

Links

• Modern Cornish http://moderncornish.net/late-texts/Allen-William-rhyme2.html

Reference

• (OC Vol IV No 9, Summer 1949)
• The Cornish Language and Its Literature, Peter Berresford Ellis, 1974. p99