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The Radio 3 Boards > Arts Other Than Music > Literature > Welsh Poetry
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Author Topic: Welsh Poetry  (Read 312 times)
Antheil
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Gender: Female
Posts: 3206
« Reply #15 on: 18:10:46, 06-10-2008 »
Mary,

You are quite right about Gerald Manley Hopkins.  When he was studying theology at St. Buenos he learnt Welsh and was attracted by the strict metrical patterns and it did influence his writing.  I think I have seen a reference that he wrote a couple of poems in Welsh.  I don't think he ever attempted any translation of Welsh texts.

The translation of the texts is the problem.  A lot of them were done early-mid 1800s and are considered inaccurate and the translator imposing the fashion in poetry of the times.  Luckily there are a lot of new translations which adhere more strongly to the original and I hope to post some more Aneirin shortly.  The other problem with the Bardic and Sage poems is that they assume you know the history of the battles and struggles.  Given that not a lot of people do it is better I think to read them in individual stanzas rather than the whole epic.
« Last Edit: 18:21:49, 06-10-2008 by Antheil » Logged
Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
Don Basilio
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Posts: 2682


Era solo un mio sospetto
« Reply #16 on: 09:32:42, 07-10-2008 »
Deciding Dylan Thomas was just not me, I got R S Thomas off the shelves

There is no present in Wales
And there is no future.
There is only the past
Brittle with relics;
Wind bitten towers and castles
With sham ghosts;
Mouldering quarries and mines
And an impotent people,
Sick with inbreeding,
Worrying the carcase of an old song.

He doesn't exactly ac-cent-uate the positive, does he?

I found him impossible to read to myself other than in a cod Welsh accent.
« Last Edit: 09:12:34, 08-10-2008 by Don Basilio » Logged
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
richard barrett
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Posts: 3123
« Reply #17 on: 09:37:27, 07-10-2008 »
RS Thomas wrote about a Wales that was already disappearing in his time. It's much worse now.
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Andy D
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Posts: 3061
« Reply #18 on: 10:25:29, 07-10-2008 »
Quote from: Don Basilio on 09:32:42, 07-10-2008
He doesn't exactly ac-cent-uate the positive, does he?

We looked at RS Thomas in my poetry group recently - at my suggestion, I've liked his poetry for a long time. He's even more miserable than Thomas Hardy. There are one or 2 almost positive poems - but not many! We're going to hear Carol Ann Duffy at the Birmingham Book Festival later this month and she's preceded by a seminar about RST which we might also go to.

By coincidence, at our last meeting we looked at Gerard (sic Wink) Manley Hopkins. The later stuff gets almost inpenetrable.
« Last Edit: 10:31:18, 07-10-2008 by Andy D » Logged
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