Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards

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PREFACE.

As there is a natural curiosity in most people to be brought acquainted with the works of men, whose names have been conveyed down to us with applause from very early antiquity, I have been induced to think, that a translation of some of the Welsh Bards would be no unacceptable present to the public.  It is true they lived in times when all Europe was enveloped with the dark cloud of bigotry and ignorance; yet, even under these disadvantageous circumstances, a late instance may convince us, that poetry shone forth with a light, that seems astonishing to many readers.  They who have perused the works of Ossian, as translated by Mr. Macpherson, will, I believe, be of my opinion.

I mean not to set the following poems in competition with those just mentioned; nor did the success which they have met with from the world, put me upon this undertaking.  It was first thought of, and encouraged some years before the name of Ossian was known in England.  I had long been convinced, that no nation in Europe possesses greater remains of ancient and genuine pieces of this kind than the Welsh; and therefore was inclined, in honour to my country, to give a specimen of them in the English language.

As to the genuineness of these poems, I think there can be no doubt; but though we may vie with the Scottish nation in this particular, yet there is another point, in which we must yield to them undoubtedly.  The language of their oldest poets, it seems, is still perfectly intelligible, which is by no means our case.

The works of Taliesin, Llywarch Hên, Aneurin Gwawdrydd, Myrddin Wyllt, Avan Verddig, who all flourished about the year 560, a considerable time after Ossian, are hardly understood by the best critics and antiquarians in Wales, though our language has not undergone more changes than the Erse.  Nay, the Bards that wrote a long while after, from the time of William the Conquerer to the death of Prince Llewelyn, are not so easy to be understood; but that whoever goes about to translate them, will find numerous obsolete words, not to be found in any Dictionary or Glossary, either in print or manuscript.

What this difference is owing to, I leave to be determined by others, who are better acquainted, than I am, with such circumstances of the Scottish Highlands, as might prove more favourable towards keeping up the perfect knowledge of their language for so many generations.  But, be that as it may, it is not my intent to enter into the dispute, which has arisen in relation to the antiquity of Ossian’s poems.  My concern is only about the opinion the world may entertain of the intrinsic value of those which I offer.  They seem to me, though not so methodical and regular in their composition as many poems of other nations, yet not to be wanting in poetical merit; and if I am not totally deceived in my judgment, I shall have no reason to repent of the pains I have taken to draw them out of that state of obscurity, in which they have hitherto been buried, and in which they run great risk of mouldering away.

It might perhaps be expected, that I should say something of the Bards in general on this occasion; but as I have treated that subject in my Latin Dissertation, which I shall annex to these translations, it will be sufficient to observe here, that the usual subjects of their poems were the brave feats of their warriors in the field, their hospitality and generosity, with other commendable qualities in domestic life, and elegies upon their great men, which were sung to the harp at their feasts, before a numerous audience of their friends and relations.  This is the account that the Greek and Roman writers have given of them, as I have shown at large in the above-mentioned treatise, which I intend to publish.

The following poems, from among many others of greater length, and of equal merit, were taken from a manuscript of the learned Dr. Davies, author of the Dictionary, which he had transcribed from an ancient vellom MS. which was wrote, partly in Edward the Second and Third’s time, and partly in Henry the Fifth’s, containing the works of all the Bards from the Conquest to the death of Llewelyn, the last prince of the British line.  This is a noble treasure, and very rare to be met with; for Edward the First ordered all our Bards, and their works, to be destroyed, as is attested by Sir John Wynne of Gwydir, in the history he compiled of his ancestors at Carnarvon.  What remained of their works were conveyed in his time to the Exchequer, where he complains they lay in great confusion, when he had occasion to consult them.

As to the translation, I have endeavoured to render the sense of the Bards faithfully, without confining myself to too servile a version; nor have I, on the other hand, taken liberty to wander much from the originals; unless where I saw it absolutely necessary, on account of the different phraseology and idiom of language.

If this small collection has the good fortune to merit the attention of the public, I may, in some future time, if God permit me life and health, proceed to translate other select pieces from the same manuscript.  The poems, in the original, have great merit; and if there is none in the translation of this specimen, it must be owing entirely to my inability to do the Bards justice.  I am not the only person who admires them: men of the greatest sense and learning in Wales do the same.

It must be owned, that it is an arduous task to bring them to make any tolerable figure in a prose translation; but those who have any candour, will make allowances.  What was said of poetry in general by one of the wits, that it is but Prose run mad, may very justly be applied to our Bards in particular: for there are not such extravagant flights in any poetic compositions, except it be in the Eastern, to which, as far as I can judge by the few translated specimens I have seen, they bear a great resemblance....