Dylans Great Poem

Cerdd Fawr Dylan/ Dylan’s Great Poem: Cymuned/Community

Dylan’s Great Poem returned for International Dylan Thomas Day on Thursday 14 May. People’s Laureate of Wales Martin Daws and Aneirin Karadog created a 100-line bilingual epic poem written by the young people of the world. Anyone was eligible to submit up to four lines of poetry, each up to eight words long, on the theme of ‘Our Community’. Entries came from all over the world including Sweden, Sri Lanka and India.

A place with love
a place of peace
different people meet
friendships increase
lle o gariad
a lle o heddwch
pobl wahanol sy’n cwrdd
tyf cyfeillgarwch
hearts fill with joy
where harmony is sweet
not ignoring you
saying hi every step
llenwa calon â llawenydd
lle mae cynghanedd…
heb wep a anwybydda
gwenu o gam i gam

Being together
taking time for each other
staying together
sharing ideas
the best thing in life
holding hands forever
that’s how we make peace

Bod gyda’n gilydd
gwneud amser i’n gilydd
aros gyda’n gilydd
rhannu pob ymennydd
pethau gorau bywyd
dal dwylo’n dragywydd
yw sut mae creu heddwch

We work together hand in hand
like one enormous one man band
gweithiwn gyda’n gilydd law yn llaw
fel band un dyn anferth ei draw
make music with our mixed up speech
beyond the tyrant’s clawlike reach
creu cerddoriaeth o’n lleferydd llifeiriog
tu hwnt i afael crafangus y teyrn cynddeiriog.

She spoke to me, with words like gold
“This place is ours; our home, our stronghold.”
And now she’s gone, no longer with me;
in her name, I stand. This place is not yours, and we shall be free.

Siaradodd hi â fi, gyda geiriau o aur,
“Dyma ein lle, ein cartref, ein cadarnle”
Mae hi wedi mynd. Nid yw gyda fi bellach;
yn ei henw, sefaf. Nid dyma dy le di, ac fe fyddwn yn rhydd.

Cymuned yw’r lle gallwn garu ein gilydd
Community is where people love each other
Cymunedau yw’r llefydd lle cyrchir heddwch
communities are where hope is brought
Cymuned yw pobol yn cydweithio
community is people working together
Cymuned sy’n esgor ar hapusrwydd dan y galon
community brings happiness from under our heart

Rhwymau sy’n clymu fel gwreiddiau coed,
drwy gynddaredd yr angerdd tywyll
bywydau ar wasgar fel dail yn canu
caneuon adar ein sïon a chlecs
cario newydd y gymdogaeth ar y dydd hwn
dyma lle y dysgwn i fod yn ni ein hunain
lle mae’r arallfyd yn ein gwthio ni mewn

Ties that bind like roots of trees
through the darkened passion’s anger
scattered lives like fallen leaves sing
songs of birds our whisper’s hearsay
speak the neighbourhood news of this day
this is where we learn to be ourselves
where otherness edges us in

We work together hand in hand
like one enormous one man band
gweithiwn gyda’n gilydd law yn llaw
fel band un dyn anferth ei draw
make music with our mixed up speech
beyond the tyrant’s clawlike reach
creu cerddoriaeth o’n lleferydd llifeiriog
tu hwnt i afael crafangus y teyrn cynddeiriog.

We gather round the well
crynhown o gylch y ffynnon
as you smile the sun rises
shimmering through you
daw’r wawr yn dy wên
gan dywynnu drwyddot
shadow touched in a glowing web
each one minutely driving the stream
waking each other from self-centered dreams
rising and falling the flowing ebb
a’th gysgod agos fel gwe
a phob diferyn yn rhedeg yn llif
ac yn dihuno’i gilydd o freuddwydion bogeiliol
esgyn a disgyn yn llanw a thrai

The strength of the earth
holl nerth y ddaear
blood tendons and soul – all
gwythiennau ac enaid – oll
wedi’u gwau yn un anadl
merged into one life force
wedi’u ieuo rhyngom
fused between us
interlaced beneath our hearts
yn gwlwm o galon.

Edited by Martin Daws and Aneirin Karadog, using lines submitted by:

Students from Sir John Cass’s Foundation and Red Coat Church of England Secondary School in East London (Sajida Begum, Fatihur Rahman, Hanifa Ahmed, Sumaiya Ahmed, Sonia Begum, Marwah Insaan, Sajida Begum, Chayton Roth)
Elspeth Harman-Sully, Pontllanfraith, Wales
Beatrice Paci, Penarth, Wales
Kerryn Yarwood, Blackburn, England
Shamith Mannan, London
Lapo Lappin, Uppsala, Sweden
Saduni Wanniarachchi, Panadura, Sri Lanka
Drishya Maity, Kolkata, India

 

About Martin Daws

Martin Daws combines modern poetry with hip hop lyricism, free jazz and fiction to create electrifying live performances and recordings of spoken word and music.

Born in Surrey, Martin has lived and worked in Snowdonia since 2001, combining his burgeoning career as a spoken word artist with his established freelance business facilitating rap and creative writing workshops with young people.

Martin was runner-up in the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry, and second in the Glastonbury Festival Grand Slam 2008. His work has been broadcast by BBC Radio, published in international journals and been performed extensively around the UK and Ireland. Martin is the current Young People’s Laureate for Wales.

About Aneirin Karadog

Aneirin Karadog was born in Llanelwy and raised in the valleys of South Wales. The son of a Welsh father and a Breton mother, he speaks five languages – Welsh, Breton, French, Spanish and English – and writes poetry in the strict Welsh meter called Cynghanedd and in free verse. He was a member of Hip-Hop outfits Y Diwygiad and Genod Droog.

Aneirin won the National Urdd Eisteddfod Chair in the Millennium Centre. He has also translated many poems. His first volume of poetry ‘O Annwn i Geltia’ won the Wales Book of the Year Welsh Language Poetry Category. He toured with Dylan Live/Dylan ar Daith, a unique take on Dylan Thomas’ life in America. He is currently the Bardd Plant Cymru.