The Birds of Rhiannon

Following my translation of Gwenallt’s ‘Rhiannon’ in the previous post, here is another translation of an earlier poem by him: ‘The Birds of Rhiannon’. This is more Romantic in nature than the later poem. The striking thing about both poems is the implication of Wales (and here Ireland too) in a state of crisis. Since the poem was published in Ysgubau’r Awen (‘Sweepings of the Muse’) in 1939 both countries have become more vibrant and confident places. The main reference here is to the Second Branch of Y Mabinogi where those returning from Ireland with the head of Brân are serenaded by the song of Rhiannon’s birds following a devastating battle. There is also a reference to Culhwch and Olwen where the song is said to "wake the dead and lull the living to sleep". But in spite of these specific allusions, a sense of contemporary relevance is rarely absent from Gwenallt’s work.

This is a freer translation than last time (y weilgi werdd becomes ‘the wolf-grey sea’!) so I give the English version only. For Gwenallt’s poems in Welsh the volume illustrated above is the definitive collection.

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Birds of Rhiannon, weave your enchantment
Over the waves of the wolf-grey sea;
Wake us to the joys of the world again,
From woes that worry us set us free.

Great are the hurts of Wales and Erin,
Laid waste by strife and sore with grief,
There’s no-one to lead them out of the troubles,
No poet to succour their hopeless life.

Bring back the dead with mellifluous music
Give hope to the living on their fleeting way,
Shape us a song that sings our story
An echo of lost harmony.

Birds of Rhiannon, weave your enchantment
Over the waves of the wolf-grey sea;
Wake us to the joys of the world again,
From woes that worry us set us free.