Giles Watson's poetry and prose
Cywydd for Ifor Hael
Cywydd for Ifor Hael
Cywydd i Ifor Hael
Ifor, all the stark splendour
Of stewardship, the grandeur
Of office, is mine. Lord of worth:
How my voice shall praise your wealth!
Brave as bronze – my praise boundless –
Great man, good man, and bounteous
With gold. I gave you strong words;
You paid in dark bragget: swords
Have less lustre. Your rhymer
Declaims your bright name: Rhydderch!
An armed man immune to wounds,
Friend to those who work in words:
When poets play upon harps
You bend your noble head to hear.
Vaunted, brave and valiant,
Never far from the vanguard,
Of noble lineage, devout,
No master was more deferent
To his poet, wise and grave:
Lord and bard are hand-in-glove.
I broadcast your fame abroad,
And return to Ifor, Lord
Most worthy of well-wrought words:
Truthful praises. Lips of bards
Trip to pronounce them: eight score
Myriad words of applause.
As far as man may travel,
As far as sun unravels,
As far as wheat is winnowed
As far as dew fills hollows
As far as unclouded eye
Can see – and three times as high –
As far as Welsh comes from lips,
Far as buds break at the tips:
Splendid Ifor, eyes ablaze,
I whet your sword, sow your praise.
Poem by Dafydd ap Gwilym, paraphrased by Giles Watson, 2012. In his fervour, Dafydd pays Ifor the enormous compliment of comparing him with Rhydderch Hael, one of the ‘Three Generous Men’ of the Welsh Triads (see Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, Cardiff, 2006, pp. 5-7; 493-495.) Bromwich points out that the word “hael” probably possessed a more precise meaning than the English “generous”, and may have been used to designate “a precise and recognised social status”. The original Rhydderch Hael was a ruler of the northern Britons in the sixth century. Whatever associations the word carried for Dafydd and his patron, the name stuck, and Ifor ap Llywelyn was later referred to as Ifor Hael by other poets. Praise poems were a dime-a-dozen in mediaeval Wales, but Dafydd’s rings with sincerity, the more so because he portrays Ifor as “Caeth y glêr” (“subservient to poets”) – presumably implying that Ifor is so appreciated because he has a genuine taste for Dafydd’s works, and goes to pains to hear them performed.
Cywydd for Ifor Hael
Cywydd for Ifor Hael
Cywydd i Ifor Hael
Ifor, all the stark splendour
Of stewardship, the grandeur
Of office, is mine. Lord of worth:
How my voice shall praise your wealth!
Brave as bronze – my praise boundless –
Great man, good man, and bounteous
With gold. I gave you strong words;
You paid in dark bragget: swords
Have less lustre. Your rhymer
Declaims your bright name: Rhydderch!
An armed man immune to wounds,
Friend to those who work in words:
When poets play upon harps
You bend your noble head to hear.
Vaunted, brave and valiant,
Never far from the vanguard,
Of noble lineage, devout,
No master was more deferent
To his poet, wise and grave:
Lord and bard are hand-in-glove.
I broadcast your fame abroad,
And return to Ifor, Lord
Most worthy of well-wrought words:
Truthful praises. Lips of bards
Trip to pronounce them: eight score
Myriad words of applause.
As far as man may travel,
As far as sun unravels,
As far as wheat is winnowed
As far as dew fills hollows
As far as unclouded eye
Can see – and three times as high –
As far as Welsh comes from lips,
Far as buds break at the tips:
Splendid Ifor, eyes ablaze,
I whet your sword, sow your praise.
Poem by Dafydd ap Gwilym, paraphrased by Giles Watson, 2012. In his fervour, Dafydd pays Ifor the enormous compliment of comparing him with Rhydderch Hael, one of the ‘Three Generous Men’ of the Welsh Triads (see Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, Cardiff, 2006, pp. 5-7; 493-495.) Bromwich points out that the word “hael” probably possessed a more precise meaning than the English “generous”, and may have been used to designate “a precise and recognised social status”. The original Rhydderch Hael was a ruler of the northern Britons in the sixth century. Whatever associations the word carried for Dafydd and his patron, the name stuck, and Ifor ap Llywelyn was later referred to as Ifor Hael by other poets. Praise poems were a dime-a-dozen in mediaeval Wales, but Dafydd’s rings with sincerity, the more so because he portrays Ifor as “Caeth y glêr” (“subservient to poets”) – presumably implying that Ifor is so appreciated because he has a genuine taste for Dafydd’s works, and goes to pains to hear them performed.