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Read by Lilli Walford
Londinium
Gostyngwch eich clust i’r ddaear
a chlywch alwadau cnawd yn cynrhoni,
synau gwaith y gôf a’r olwynydd,
troi a thynnu’r gwneuthurydd rhafau.
Bydd eich llygaid yn llosgi gan arogl
mwg y tanwydd, ac yn colli dagrau
dan effaith amonia o’r bishladd chwyslyd.
Yn ddwfn o dan hyn oll fe rhed
nod dialedd Bwdica
yn y dafell goch denau o haearn llosg;
sy’n gorwedd rhwng llinellau o glai a lludw
y cyfan wedi eu cywasgu, rhwng cerrig – a llechi
pren, olion hen dân ac esgyrn.
Yn awr wedi ei cywasgu gan ogledd a de
oddifewn i’w lleidiog phyrth;
bu’r afon unwaith yn cynnal y Neanderthal,
Homo Sapiens a’r crwydwyr unig
fu’n glynnu wrth ei glannau am hanner miliwn o flynyddoedd.
Y trigfan cyntaf 15,000 o flynyddoedd –yn ôl,
yn awr yn ddinas o dafodieithoedd di-ri
yn mabwysiadu oll a ddeuant –
helwyr, amaethwyr, a’r digartref.
Translated by John Rees
© Anthony Fisher March 2016
Welsh
In the 2011 census ,of the residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% (562,000) reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% of these were able to speak, read, and write the language making 431,000 – 15% of the total population.
Welsh is one of the two surviving languages spoken in southern Britain at the time of the Romans. The other is Breton. It is a member of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa, the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina where it is estimated that around 5,000 – 12,000 people speak it as their first language, with a further 25,000 speaking it as their second language
Translator
John Rees lives in a small village near Carmarthen. Now retired, John has translated Burns into Welsh, to acclaim in Welsh language circles.