Elegy For Llywelyn ap Gruffudd

-

Bear with me on this one, because even if you're not a Welsh speaker, and I can't claim to be one either; a poem is a poem, and Welsh poetry is particularly fine, with a history stretching far, far back in time. The beauty is in the structure, rhyme and alliteration as much as in the inherent meaning of the story told. Moreover, a modern Welsh speaker, as I've said before, can still pretty much read Medieval Welsh: try that in English...

This poem is from the thirteenth century, and is by Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Goch.


Marwnad Llywelyn ap Gruffudd


Oerfalawg calon dan fron o fraw,

Rhewydd fal crinwydd y sy'n crinaw.

Poni welwch chwi hynt y gwynt a'r glaw?

Poni welwch chwi'r deri yn ymdaraw?

Poni welwch chwi'r môr yn meirwinaw'r tir

Poni welwch chwi'r gwir yn ymgweiriaw?

Poni welwch chwi'r haulyn hwylaw'r awyr?

Poni welwch chwi'r sŷr wedi'r syrthiaw?

Pani chredwch chwi i Dduw, ddyniadon ynfyd?

Pani welwch chwi'r byd wedi'r bydiaw?

Och hyd atat Ti, Dduw, na ddaw môr dros dir?

Pa beth y'n gedir i ohiriaw?

Nid oes le y cyrcher rhag carcher braw,

Nid oes le y trigier: och o'r trigiaw! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

  1. Anonymous14 December 2023 at 09:28

    Without the knowledge of how to read/pronounce it I can't see the point mate. How you missed a genuine turning point in Welsh politics and a genuinely nice man, I know cos I bothered to meet him before he became leader of Llafur and who's recently lost his wife; almost certainly why he's given up! I'll have to ask him!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sideways14 December 2023 at 11:50

      I didn't miss it, and I think the reasons for his stepping down are more complex than that, reason enough though that is. I didn't want to put the translation in, because the inner structure, beats and rhythms of the poem are plain to see...

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des...
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [...
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more