Ceri Wyn Jones
I am thrilled to write and tell you that my lyrics for the songs from Fusion Inspire are, at this moment, being translatted into Welsh by none other than Eisteddfod Crowned & Chaired Poet, Ceri Wyn Jones!
It was my Arts Council Superviser who had the idea. In our last meeting, Suzanne Griffiths Rees and myself had a look at the lyrics and how they might best translate. She advised me that to keep the lyrical context of the songs and poems, it would be best to work with a Welsh Language Poet, as they would be more likely to incorporate the creative flow of language, rather than tranlsate in a literal sense.
She suggested Eistedford Crowned and Chaired poet, Ceri Wyn Jones and I said I would try to find him and see if he would be kind enough to work with me.
The Chaired and Crowned Bard Ceri Wyn Jones is a native of Cardigan. He grew up in Pen y Bryn (north Pembrokeshire) and received his primary education at Cilgerran and Cardigan. From Cardigan Secondary School, he went to Aberystwyth University and graduated in English.
Having spent over a decade as Head of English at Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi, he has been employed since 2002 as Editor of English Language Books at Gomer Press in Llandysul.
He won the Chair at Eisteddfod Meirion and District 2009 for a sequence of poems on the subject of Yn y Gwaed.
He won the Chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1997 for his poem Gwaddol, and is a familiar voice and face at poetry events and competitions and elsewhere.
He travels regularly throughout Wales, holding workshops for children and teachers, lecturing and broadcasting his work. His poems are now studied on Welsh Literature courses to GCSE, A Level and degree standard.
He was the Children’s Poet for Wales 2003-04 and as a consequence he published a volume of poetry for children, Dwli o Ddifri, that was shortlisted for the Tir Na-n Og Prize.
In 2007, he wrote the words for the winning Song for Wales, Blwyddyn Mâs, that was sung and composed by Einir Dafydd. His first volume of poetry, Dauwynebog (Gomer, 2007), was shortlisted for the Book of the Year 2008.
In the same year, he received an Academi Gymreig Scholarship to start working on his second volume of poetry.
Ceri Wyn Jones is the meuryn for Talwrn y Beirdd, and succeeded Gerallt Lloyd Owen in this prestigous role in Welsh language poetry in 2012.
Reviews
(discussing Dauwynebog):
“Ceri Wyn’s gift, like all true poets, is his ability to convey a vision or truth using language in a particular way that astounds us … A decade’s wait was worthwhile.”
Rhys Iorwerth (Taliesin)
“The tradition of social strict metre poetry at its strongest.”
Grahame Davies (Llais Llên)
(discussing the poem ‘Gwaddol’):
“It could almost be said that the cynghanedd, and not Welsh, is his first language, such is his intuitive mastery of it… It is, I am certain, possible to dig deep beneath the words and discover a ‘storehouse of meanings’. However, I prefer to stand back, sense the picture in all its dark dolefulness and be amazed by the talent that created it.”
Idris Reynolds (Compositions and Adjudications, Meirion and District)
So you can see why I am utterly delighted that he is working on my translations. This is only possible thanks to my Individual Mainline Grant and the wonderful support from my Grant Superviser.
The translations will be used to make recordings with local people and edited in a such a way as to come alive within Dai Collage, my recepticle for transaltion.
Watch this space peeps, it's all going on!
Don't you just love it
when a plan comes together!
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