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Gwyn Thomas provides an accessible English translation of Dafydd ap Gwilym's, (the most prolific and famous of medieval Welsh poets), complete poems. The poems are annotated to bring out their historical and literary context.
318 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1350
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About the author
Dafydd ap Gwilym
19 books2 followersDafydd ap Gwilym (c.315 - c.1350) was an innovative Medieval poet. He is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages.
His father, Gwilym Gam, and mother, Ardudfyl, were both from noble families. As one of noble birth it seems Dafydd did not belong to the guild of professional poets in medieval Wales, but the poetic tradition had been strong in his family for generations.
It is believed that about one hundred and seventy of his poems have survived, though many others have been attributed to him over the centuries. His main themes were love and nature. The influence of wider European ideas of courtly love, as exemplified in the troubadour poetry of Provençal, is seen as a significant influence on Dafydd's poetry.
He was responsible for popularising the metre known as the cywydd and first to use it for praise. But perhaps his greatest innovation was to make himself the main focus of his poetry.
His father, Gwilym Gam, and mother, Ardudfyl, were both from noble families. As one of noble birth it seems Dafydd did not belong to the guild of professional poets in medieval Wales, but the poetic tradition had been strong in his family for generations.
It is believed that about one hundred and seventy of his poems have survived, though many others have been attributed to him over the centuries. His main themes were love and nature. The influence of wider European ideas of courtly love, as exemplified in the troubadour poetry of Provençal, is seen as a significant influence on Dafydd's poetry.
He was responsible for popularising the metre known as the cywydd and first to use it for praise. But perhaps his greatest innovation was to make himself the main focus of his poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 25, 2012
It's not easy to convey the magic of Dafydd ap Gwilym in a translation, but reading the poetry in the original medieval Welsh is inaccessible to many people. The ideal solution - if you understand Welsh - is to have both the original and this book and read them together.
If you don't speak Welsh, however, these translations do manage to convey the energy, the joy, the wonderfully vivid depictions and compelling story-telling that is found in the originals. You get a real insight into the entertaining 14th century minstrel whose loves and passions inspired these great works - a cultured, educated man who didn't take himself or life or the world around him too seriously.
Beautifully translated by another cultured, educated man who has taken great care with the material and treated this enormous and difficult task with huge respect.
If you don't speak Welsh, however, these translations do manage to convey the energy, the joy, the wonderfully vivid depictions and compelling story-telling that is found in the originals. You get a real insight into the entertaining 14th century minstrel whose loves and passions inspired these great works - a cultured, educated man who didn't take himself or life or the world around him too seriously.
Beautifully translated by another cultured, educated man who has taken great care with the material and treated this enormous and difficult task with huge respect.
October 14, 2011
I happened upon this book in a used bookshop, having no idea who Dafydd ap Gwilym was. He immediately became one of my favorite medieval poets, in the same rank as Chaucer, the "Gawain" poet and the "Beowulf" poet. Where Dafydd - or I should say, Loomis's translation, as I am not equipped to assess the Welsh originals (sadly not included) - outdoes them is in the lyric. Take the following, from #17, "Elegy for Rhydderch":
A strange sermon was it to lay
Under this black turf
Knowledges, senses of love
I've kept these lines in my mind for years. They are a perfect expression of the almost inexpressable enormity of the loss accompanying death.
Or take the beautiful little line from #108, "The Heart":
It will be quiet in an unjealous way;
It will fill like a little egg.
A heart doesn't fill like a cup, with something poured into it; it fills quietly, like an egg, with something growing within it.
Finally, consider some lines from #131, "Yesterday", which also conclude Loomis's warm and entirely informing introduction:
After my wound (I am blind),
I'm tough like a withe from an apple tree
That bends easily (affliction's touch)
And will not break after a strong blow.
There is in me (faint memory of a smile)
The soul of a shivery old cat;
Let the wood-gray body be wounded, beaten,
Whatever be at it, it will live.
Dafydd's poetry is strikingly human, and Loomis's translations convey that humanity. This edition seems difficult to find, but it's definitely worth it if you have an interest in anything medieval, lyrical, Welsh, or just plain poetic.
A strange sermon was it to lay
Under this black turf
Knowledges, senses of love
I've kept these lines in my mind for years. They are a perfect expression of the almost inexpressable enormity of the loss accompanying death.
Or take the beautiful little line from #108, "The Heart":
It will be quiet in an unjealous way;
It will fill like a little egg.
A heart doesn't fill like a cup, with something poured into it; it fills quietly, like an egg, with something growing within it.
Finally, consider some lines from #131, "Yesterday", which also conclude Loomis's warm and entirely informing introduction:
After my wound (I am blind),
I'm tough like a withe from an apple tree
That bends easily (affliction's touch)
And will not break after a strong blow.
There is in me (faint memory of a smile)
The soul of a shivery old cat;
Let the wood-gray body be wounded, beaten,
Whatever be at it, it will live.
Dafydd's poetry is strikingly human, and Loomis's translations convey that humanity. This edition seems difficult to find, but it's definitely worth it if you have an interest in anything medieval, lyrical, Welsh, or just plain poetic.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews