Pererin / Pilgrim

Pererin

Fe’i gwelais heddiw ym môn y berth
A’i ben ar bwys ei bac,
Yn torri’ r daith sy’n fwrn ers tro
Ar fynwes gorsiog Mac.

Daw hiraeth am y nosau gynt
Hyd erwau Erin werdd,
Am wres y ddawns a’ r ieuanc nwyd,
A holl gyfaredd cerdd.

Pan ddaw y teithio blin i ben
Yng nghysgod perth neu das,
A ddaw Matholwch gyda’i feirch
I’w ddwyn i dir ei dras?

Pilgrim

I saw him today beneath the hedge
His head beside his pack,
A break on the road that’s a burden now
On the boggy chest of Mac.

Longing comes for the nights long ’go
On Erin’s acres green,
For the heat of the dance and youth aglow,
And the tunes that enchanted seem.

When all the weary journeys end
As beneath some bush his breath is stilled,
Will Matholwch* come with ghostly steeds
To take him where his fathers tilled?

©: Vernon Jones, a journalist in Aberystwyth, included this elegy to an old man of the road in his book of poems, ‘Llwch Oged’, (‘Harrow Dust’) published in 1968.
We are grateful to the him for permission to reproduce it here.

*Matholwch, in the ‘Mabinogion’, the legendary Welsh cycle of epic tales, was the King of Ireland who sailed to Harlech with a fleet of 13 ships to seek Branwen as his bride.

Translation: Barry Tobin.

Y Ddraig Werdd Rhif 2

The Green Dragon No 4, Autumn 1997

Links St. Patrick’s Day / Gorgysylltiadau G?yl Padrig 2004

Sa Ghaeilge

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