Sharing the pain- here's an Old English poem for you!

I this tale utter (overtones of vengeance) about me very sad
my own journey/fate. I am able to say that
what I of miseries experienced, after I grew up,
new or old (recently or long ago), never more than now.
Always I suffered the torment/punishment of my exile-journeys (miseries).
First my lord departed hence from peoples,
over the tumult of the waves; I had sorrow at dawn
where my leader might be (was) in the land.
Then I left to set out to seek service/retinue,
a friendless exile, for my grievous need.
This man's kinsmen began to consider that
through hidden thought, [how] that they might seperate us two,
that we two as far apart as possible in the kingdom of the world
lived in a most wretched fashion, and afflicted me with longing.
My lord commanded me to take up abode in a grove/cruel dwelling
I had few friends in this country,
loyal friends, therefore my heart is sad.
Then/when I found a very suitabe man,
unfortunate, sad at heart,
concealing [his] mind, thinking on murder/violent crime,
with a cheerful demeanour. Very often we vowed
{or: very often we vowed with a cheerful demeanour}
that we would not be parted except by death alone,
nothing else; since then that is reversed
as if it never were,
our friendship/love. I must far and near
suffer the feud/enmity of my dearly loved one.
I was ordered to dwell in a wood grove,
under an oak-tree in the cave.
Old is this earth-hall, I am all seized with longing,
the valleys are gloomy, hills lofty,
the bitter protecting hedges grown over with briars,
house without happiness. Very often the departure of my lord
cruelly laid hold of me here. Friends/lovers are on/in earth,
the dear ones living, occupy a bed/grave,
then I walk alone in the period before dawn
under the oak-tree, through these caves/graves.
There I may sit the summer-long day,
There I may weep my exile-journeys (miseries),
many of hardships; because I can never
rest from my grief of heart,
nor from all of the longing which in this life laid hold of me.
Always the/a young man/person nust be sad-minded,
bitter/hard of heart, likewise [he] must have
a cheerful demeanour (blithe bearing) also grief of the heart,
a multitude of constant sorrows. Might be dependent on himself
for all his worldly joy, might be very widely outlawed
in a far country, that my friend/lover/husband sits
under a stone-cliff covered with frost by a storm,
disconsolate friend/protector, surrounded by water
in a desolate hall, he suffers, my friend,
much grief of heart; he remembers too often
a pleasant abode. Woe is/will be to him that must
await a loved one with longing.

Now you tell me what it means. Sorry, it's not the nicest translation, but the meaning is so obscure I thought I'd better stick with something fairly literal, and with lots of alternative meanings (pick your own either/or option, for your reading pleasure!). The speaker is (probably) female. What's going on here is a matter of speculation. So that's my essay for you...