Laudator Temporis Acti

Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, A Guide to Old English, 8th ed. (Wiley-Blackwel, 2012), page number unknown:

'Where are those who lived before us?' In every age and culture people have raised this haunting question, especially when prompted to such thoughts by an ancient ruin or some other relic of the past. In both their poetry and their prose the Anglo-Saxons were very given to reflection on former civilizations and the people who built them, so much so that their language had a word for such meditation: dūstscēawung 'contemplation of the dust'. This theme occurs often as an incidental motif in longer works (e.g. The Wanderer ll. 73–110 and Beowulf ll. 2255–66), but The Ruin is an entire poem devoted to the depiction of an ancient ghost town and to the thoughts which the scene evokes.

The Ruin, tr. Craig Williamson, The Complete Old English Poems (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), pp. 582-583:

Wondrous are these ancient wall-stones,
Shattered by time, foundations shaken by fate,
The old work of giants, crumbled, corrupted—
Rooftops in ruin, towers tumbled down.
Gate-locks lie broken, frost chokes the lime—        5
Ceilings sapped with age, the high hall loftless.
The mortar is moldy, the master-builders are gone,
Buildings and brave men in the clutch of the grave.
A hundred generations have passed away,
Princes and peoples now forgotten.        10
The ruddy wall-stones are stained with gray,
Rocks that have outlived the reign of kings,
The crash of storms, the crush of time.
Still something remains as a fierce reminder—
Walls scored with weapons, grimly ground down,        15
The old work of smiths, skillfully wrought,
Shining and bright, now dull with dust,
* * *
The mind of the builder crafted a clever idea,
To bind the walls in circular shapes
With strips of wire, with rods and rings.        20
The burg-halls were bright, the bath-houses beautiful,
The gabled roofs grand. The sounds of warriors,
Their steps and shouts, reverberated under roofs.
The meadhalls were full of wine and revelry—
Until fierce fate overturned everything.        25
Proud men were slaughtered, a plague attacked,
Grim death gathered up a whole host of people.
Their ramparts were ruined, their halls laid waste;
Their cities crumbled. Warriors were wounded,
Craftsmen killed. No builder was left alive.        30
The halls grieved and fell, arches angled down,
Tiles tumbled, red stone hit the ground,
Broken piles where once men sang
And played the lyre, clothed in splendor,
Adorned with gold, gladdened with wine,        35
Gazing on treasures, shining armor,
Silver and gemstones, precious jewels,
A bright city, a burgeoning kingdom.
There were stone buildings and hot springs
Bringing bath water in the walls' embrace—        40
That was convenient as the hot streams poured
Over the gray stones into a circular pool,
A pond in a building, a kingly thing.

The mutilated original, from Anne L. Klinck, The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992; rpt. 2001), pp. 103-105:

Wrætlic is þes wealstan!    Wyrde gebræcon;
burgstede burston,    brosnað enta geweorc;
hrofas sind gehrorene,    hreorge torras,
hringeat berofen,    hrim on lime;
scearde scurbeorge,    scorene, gedrorene,        5
ældo undereotone.    Eorðgrap hafað
waldendwyrhtan,    forweorone, geleorene,
heard gripe hrusan,    oþ hund cnea
werþeoda gewitan.    Oft þæs wag gebad,
ræghar ond readfah,    rice æfter oþrum,        10
ofstonden under stormum.    Stea[p] geap gedreas.
Wu[n]að giet se---------    ------[n]um geheapen.
Felon [i]-------------    -------------
grimme gegrunde[n]    -------------
----------r[e]scan    heo---------------        15
------------g orþonc    ærsceaft--------
-----------g--    lamrindum beag.
Mod mo[nade    m]swiftne gebrægd;
hwætred in hringas    hygerof gebond
weall walanwirum    wundrum togædre.        20
Beorht wæron burgræced,    burnsele monige,
heah horngestreon,    heresweg micel,
meodoheall monig,    mondreama full;
oþþæt þæt onwende,    wyrd seo swiþe.
Crungon walo wide;    cwoman woldagas.        25
Swylt eall fornom    secgrofra wera.
Wurdon hyra wigsteal    westenstaþolas.
Brosnade burgsteall,    betend crungon,
hergas to hrusan.    Forþon þas hofu dreorgiað,
ond þæs teaforgeapa    tigelum sceadeð        30
hrostbeames rof.    Hryre wong gecrong,
gebrocen to beorgum,    þær iu beorn monig
glædmod ond goldbeorht,    gleoma gefrætwed,
wlonc ond wingal,    wighyrstum scan;
seah on sinc, on sylfor,    on searogimmas,        35
on ead, on æht,    on eorcanstan,
on þas beorhtan burg    bradan rices.
Stanhofu stodan;    stream hate wearp,
widan wylme.    Weal eall befeng
beorhtan bosme,    þær þa baþu wæ[r]on,        40
hat on hreþre.    þæt wæs hyðelic.
Leton þonne geotan    [l]---------------
ofer h[arn]e stan    hate streamas,
un[d]------------    -------------
[o]þþæt hringmere    hate-----------        45
------------------    þær þa baþu wæron.
þonne is ---------------------
------------re;    þæt is cynelic þing
hu se --------------    -------burg ------