The Dream of Lehi

Se dréam æf Lehi
The Dream of Lehi
By Chris Bishop

Se fæder æf se níwe land hæfde swæfrūn æf heofon
The father of the new land sees a vision of heaven (sleep-secret)

Mann cláðian in hwít findan þár
There is a man dressed in white

In swæfrūn þár tréow wið tréowfóda
In this vision there is a tree with fruit (tree-food)

Etan se fæder se tréowfóda swéte
The father eats the fruit it is delicious

Se tréowfóda bręngean him blithfrith scearu se tréowfóda wið sunu
The fruit makes him happy (cheerful-peace) and he wants to share it with his family

Þár hús wið mannwacer hlęhhan
There is a building with people who laugh

Þár rodd scéawian séo se tréow
There is a rod to guide them to the tree

Hys sunu haldan se rodd rǽcan se tréow wið blithfrith
His family takes the rod so that they might make it to the tree of happiness

I wrote about Lehi’s dream of the tree of life and his desire that his family joins him in partaking of the joy that he experienced. This was not an easy assignment, but I was able to learn a lot and see how some words came about. I had to be creative with some of the translation due to the fact that OE does not have the same words that we have in PDE. It makes me grateful to speak the language that I speak.