Categories: reading, eurovision
Date: 12 May 2007 09:11:18
Before we get to Welsh literature, let's go downmarket by reminding Aussies that SBS is screening the 2007 Eurovision Contest semi-final tonight and the final tomorrow night. I know the semi-final has already been screened, and I've avoided all news (and Ship -- there's a thread in Heaven on it) mention of it so that I can watch it unaffected. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, though I doubt it will get the votes (far too sensible) I'm going for Deutschland's big band jazz number.
Among the books I'm reading at the moment is Marion Eames' A Private Language? - A Dip into Welsh Literature (for some reason this link does not work the first time you click it, but works subsequently: colour me confused). I am greatly enjoying finding out about a nation's literary history that I know very little, if anything, about.
Glimpses into Taliesin and Aneirin (who was believed to be a court bard in a Cumbric kingdom [and through some limited research on the Cumbric language my linguistic knowledge also has increased] -- both from the 6th Century; poems concerning Llywarch Hen, a 6th century prince; and a look at Gnomic poetry (not to do with gnomes, as one might expect, but "maxims put into verse" as defined by Wikipedia), nature poems and prophetic songs. Looking ahead, the next chapter concerns the Mabinogion, "a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts."
Marion Eames (who died earlier this year) gives a wonderful background to the periods of history that produced these works, as well as describing their subject matter in wonderful and engrossing detail. At the end of each chapter are also some examples, in Welsh and English, of the works she has described. Here is a riddling verse for a nature poem:
Guess who it is: created before the Flood,Could you guess? Answer below.
A creature strong without flesh, without bone,
Without veins, without blood, without head, without feet,
It grows no older, it grows no younger than it began ...
Tis on sea, tis on land, it sees not, is not seen;
It is evil; it is good; it is yonder; it is here.tr. H. Idris Bell
A Private Language? - A Dip into Welsh Literature, Marion Eames, 1997, Gomer Press, p. 39
I also loved the gnomic poem examples: here is an example, where I just melted into the imagery: and then to be served a maxim at the end is a nice extra:
Eira mynydd , gwyn ceunant,
Rhag rhuthr gwynt y gwydd a wyrant,;
Llawer dau a ymgarant
A byth ni chyfarfyddant.Mountain snow, deep dingle white,
Woods bend before wind's onslaught;
Many couples are in love
And never come together.tr. Joseph P Clancy
A Private Language? - A Dip into Welsh Literature, Marion Eames, 1997, Gomer Press, p. 41