Welsh Lyrics of the Nineteenth Century

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Welsh Lyrics of the Nineteenth Century, by Edmund O. Jones
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Title: Welsh Lyrics of the Nineteenth Century
Author: Edmund O. Jones
Release Date: February 25, 2005 [eBook #15165]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WELSH LYRICS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY***
Welsh Lyrics of the Nineteenth Century?Selected and Translated by Edmund O. Jones?[First Series]
LONDON: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., Limited?BANGOR: Javis & Foster, Lorne House?MDCCCXCVI
CONTENTS.
DEDICATION
PREFACE
ALUN
i. The Fisherman's Wife?ii. Dolly?iii. Tintern Abbey?iv. The Nightingale
IEUAN GLAN GEIRIONYDD
i. Morfa Rhuddlan?ii. The Shepherd of Cwmdyli?iii. Why should we weep
GLASYNYS
Blodeuwedd and Hywel
IOAN EMLYN
The Pauper's Grave
TREBOR MAI
i. The Shepherd's Love?ii. Baby
CALEDFRYN
The Cuckoo
GWILYM MARLES
i. New Year Thoughts?ii. Who in this new God's acre
IEUAN GWYNEDD
i. The Cottages of Wales?ii. Go and dig a grave
CEIRIOG
i. Songs of Wales?ii. Myfanwy?iii. Liberty?iv. Climb the hillside?v. Change and Permanence?vi. Homewards?vii. Daybreak?viii. The White Stone?ix. The Traitors of Wales?x. A Mother's Message?xi. Mountain Rill?xii. Llewelyn's Grave?xiii. Rhuddlan Strand?xiv. The Steed of Dapple Grey?xv. A Lullaby
ISLWYN
i. Night?ii. The Vision and the Faculty Divine?iii. Thought?iv. The Variety of Wales?v. The Sick Minister?vi. Life like the Heavens?vii. The Poets of Wales?viii. The Lighthouse
MYNYDDOG
i. When comes my Gwen?ii. A Nocturne?iii. Come to the Boat, Love?iv. At the foot of the Stairs
OSSIAN GWENT
i. The Lark?ii. The Bible?iii. The Lake?iv. A Morning Greeting
ROBERT OWEN
i. De profundis?ii. A Prayer
TO MY MOTHER.
They flout me as half-English--a disgrace?For which scarce all your virtues can atone,?Mother, in whom I find no flaw but one,?That you are Saxon!--but this fault of race?Fell not on me nor yet, I fear, your grace?Of English speech, else had more smoothly run?These echoes of Welsh Lyrics, and your son?Need not have flinched before the critic's face.?Such as they are, from your far Yorkshire home?Perchance they may in fancy bid you come,?Pondering past memories, to my native land,?Once more to see fair Mawddach from the bridge,?To mark how Cader rises, ridge on ridge,?Or, where Llanaber guards our dead, to stand.
July, 1896.
PREFACE.
The words "First Series" which appear on the Title Page are intended to show, firstly, that I do not at all consider the present collection in any sense a representative anthology of the Welsh Lyrics of the Century, and secondly, that if this effort meets with approval, I hope to bring out two or three further instalments, one of them, if possible, being from poems written in the "mesurau caethion." My aim, in fact, is to publish by degrees a collection of translations which might eventually be gathered together in a single volume (with a general introduction and critical notices on each author) so as to form a more or less adequate anthology of our nineteenth century poets. "So runs my dream": whether it can ever be realized depends of course in a great measure on the reception this first series meets with. That it has many serious defects I well know, nor can I attempt to disarm criticism by pointing out the immense difficulties which confront the man who tries to put Welsh poetry into English rhyme, especially when that man has never written a line of English verse before. But I should be most grateful to readers for any hints or suggestions, by which the faults and imperfections of the present volume may be avoided in a second series. I have retained the metres of the originals with but trifling variations, except in those cases where there was nothing specially characteristic to make this desirable (as e.g., in the case of Islwyn, where I have thrown some of my translations into sonnet form) or where--as in the Song of the Fisherman's Wife--the metre, even if it could be reproduced, would not in English harmonise with the meaning. I ought perhaps to ask pardon beforehand for the audacity with which I have treated Ieuan Glan Geirionydd's famous "Morfa Rhuddlan."
I very gratefully acknowledge the courtesy of the owners of copyright, especially Messrs. Hughes & Son, Wrexham, Mr. O. M. Edwards, and Mr. James Lewis, New Quay (to whom my translation of the "Pauper's Grave" belongs).
My most cordial thanks are also due to Mr. W. Lewis Jones, Lecturer in English at the University College of North Wales, who though an entire stranger has given me his valuable assistance and advice in seeing these pages through the press.
EDMUND O. JONES.?VICARAGE, LLANIDLOES,?July 23, 1896.
ALUN.
John Blackwell (Alun), was born of very poor parents at Mold in 1797. Beginning life as a shoe-maker, his successes at the Eisteddfods of Ruthin and Mold in 1823 attracted the attention of the gentry of the neighbourhood, and a fund was formed to send him to the University. He took his degree