Prologue
In a summer season when the sun shone softly
I wrapped myself in woolens as if I were a sheep;
In a hermit's habit, unholy in his works,
I went out into the world to hear wonders
And to see many strange and seldom-known things.5
But on a May morning in the Malvern Hills
I happened to fall asleep, worn out from walking;
And in a meadow as I lay sleeping,
I dreamed most marvelously, as I recall.
All the world's wealth and all of its woe, 10
Dozing though I was, I certainly saw;
Truth and treachery, treason and guile,
Sleeping I saw them all, as I shall record.
I looked to the East toward the rising sun
And saw a tower—I took it Truth was inside. 15
To the West then I looked after a while
And saw a deep dale—Death, as I believe,
Dwelled in that place, along with wicked sprits.
Between them I found a fair field full of folk
Of all manner of men, the common and the poor, 20
Working and wandering as this world asks us.