matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt ) (01/16/86)
> I have an English translation of a Welsh song -- it's all translated, > that is, except the refrain. There's a note saying it has "many > possible translations". Could someone give me an idea of what the > words might mean? Even a word-by-word list of possibilities would be > greatly appreciated. Here's the first verse (the line in question is > the last one). Thanks, very much. > > Now strike the harp gladly, let music resound, > To cheer all the true hearts here gather'd around, > No word of contention shall sully our joy. > No thought of dull care our contentment destroy. > Here patriots may loudly rejoice to be free, > And Cambrians to Cambria vow faithful to be, > Mewn Awen fwyn lawen byw byth y bo hi. It's always dangerous when an idiot gets hold of a dictionary and tries to translate from a language he knows little about, BUT that's never stopped me before, so: mewn = in, within; Awen = Muse (the root -awen- appears in several words meaning "poet," "poetry," and the like, so maybe the Muse referred to is the Muse of Poetry); mwyn = kind, gentle, mild, dear (the "m" mutates into an "f," pronounced like the "f" in English "of," in the line from Mr. Brim's song); lawen = joyful, merry, glad; byw = to live (the verb); byth = forever; y = the (pronounced like the English word "a" in the phrase "a book.") po = a particle used to indicate the superlative (the "p" mutates into a "b" here); hi = she (pronounced "he," as in Hebrew). It may be (a wild guess on my part) that "byth y bo" is some sort of Welsh idiom meaning "for ever and ever." My little dictionary is too small to include idioms, and by Welsh grammar book is in a carton in a house down in Baltimore, so I can't look it up. So one of many possible translations could be: "May she [i.e., Cambria] live forever and ever in mild, joyful Poetry!" One can generate many other translations by substituting the other meanings for the words above, or (even better) by consulting a more comprehensive dictionary, or (best of all) by asking a native Welsh speaker -- I understand there are some right in my county (Harford), around Cardiff, Md., in quarry country near the Pennsylvania border, but I don't know any of them. -- Matt Rosenblatt (matt@amsaa.ARPA)
chmorris@watrose.UUCP (chmorris) (01/17/86)
In article <1674@brl-tgr.ARPA> matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt ) writes: >It's always dangerous when an idiot gets hold of a dictionary and tries to >translate from a language he knows little about, BUT that's never stopped me >before, so: I sent a mail message to the originator of this topic a while back, but since someone else seems to be interested: > >Awen = Muse (the root -awen- appears in several words meaning > "poet," "poetry," and the like, so maybe the Muse referred to > is the Muse of Poetry); Yes, Awen is the 'muse' of poetry/prophecy; but it refers to the amorphous type of spirit, rather than a personified Goddess like the Greek muses. >y = the (pronounced like the English word "a" in the phrase "a book.") >po = a particle used to indicate the superlative (the "p" mutates into > a "b" here); > >It may be (a wild guess on my part) that "byth y bo" is some sort of Welsh >idiom meaning "for ever and ever." y bo : bo is a contracted form of bod (to be); I don't know the linguistic name for the tense but it corresponds to 'may it be so' or 'let it be such-&-such' in English. 'y' doesn't actually mean 'the' here - it is used as a sort of connector for the clauses. >"May she [i.e., Cambria] live forever and ever in mild, joyful Poetry!" That's the gist of it. The words given are an approximate translation of Ceiriog's Welsh verses; in those, the 'she' actually refers to the whole Isle of Britain and the context is a sort of Welsh may-Britannia-rule-the-waves-forever.