Welsh Lyrics of the Nineteenth Century

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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