Lyr Req: Tryweryn

Subject: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: GUEST,Sherbs
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 06:11 PM

I'm looking for the lyrics to the song Tryweryn sung by Meic Stephens and/or Dafydd Iwan. I know it starts "Mae blodau yn yr ardd yn hardd" but I can't remember all the words.

I'm also looking for a translation if at all possible. I've searched all over the 'net for it and failed to find it.

Sherbs

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: Peace
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 06:18 PM

It is on the CD entitled "Celtic Crossroads" available from

Music Outfitters, Inc.
134 N. 1st Ave E, Ely, MN 55731
[phone]

There are many Welsh people on this forum, and I'm sure your question will be addressed by one or more of them. They're a very friendly people and very proud of their heritage. Best to you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: Peace
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 06:26 PM

Why not write to

dafyddiwan (at) cymru1 (dot) net

Omit spaces, etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 07:01 PM

There are a number of CD's titled "Celtic Crossroads." The one with a recording of "Tryweryn" by Gwenno is formally called Putumayo Presents: Celtic Crossroads - it's available at amazon.mudcat.org - and I think most of the Putumayo collections include lyrics.

Is it the same song?

I dunno.

The song called "Tryweryn" is on a CD called Rain in the Leaves by Meic Stevens - and you've said that's the song you want.


-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: sian, west wales
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 06:10 AM

I think there is a Meic Stevens song book, but I don't own it. The words aren't in the 3 disc compilation of his songs that came out a few years back. There's a Welsh book shop across the road; I'll slip out later and see if they have the book, unless someone else comes up with the words before then.

So - what's the interest in Welsh songs, Sherbs? You might be interested in looking at the trac website, including the magazine .pdf for Ontrac.

sian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 08:44 AM

There's a number of songs I have on tape/CD and have listened to and half sung along to for years but I'm never sure if I have the words right and I've never seen a proper translation of them either so I only have my somewhat inadequite understanding of them to go by. I'm now having to explain them to people and so really I need to have something a bit better to go on.

Sherbs

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: sian, west wales
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 09:20 AM

Well, apparently there is a book that it is likely to be in:

STEVENS, Meic. I Adrodd yr Hanes: 51 o Ganeuon Meic Stevens gyda cherddoriaeth. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 1993.

The local shop doesn't have it; if I'm up at the library end of town over the weekend, I'll see if there's a copy there.

sian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: GUEST,Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin (Ynys Manaw)
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 10:27 AM

I don't know if this is the full lyric. I'll have to go back and listen to it again. In addition to Meic Stevens himself, Mabsant (Siwsan George and Stuart Brown) did a good version of it some years ago (with Steve Whitehead on woodwind).

Tryweryn (Meic Stevens - perhaps the first song he wrote in Welsh)

Mae'r blodau yn yr ardd yn hardd
Mae rhosyn ger y drws yn dlws;
Ond nid yw'r blodau'n tyfu nawr
Mewn pridd o dan y creigiau mawr

Dwr oer sy'n cysgu yn Nhryweryn . . .

Mae'r dwr uwchben fy nhy yn ddu,
Mae'r pysgod yn y llyn yn wyn,
Ond nid ywor blodau'n tyfu nawr
mewn ty o dan y creigiau mawr.

Dwr oer . . .

Mae'r blodau'n tyfu'n hardd;
Mae'r dail yn cwympo i lawr;
Mae'r bobl wedi mynd;
Mae'r blodau ar y llawr.

Dwr oer . . .


The flowers in the garden are beautiful;
Roses round the door are pretty;
But the flowers are not growing now
In the house beneath the great crags.

Cold water is sleeping in Tryweryn . . .

The water above my house is black,
The fish in the lake is white,
But the flowers are not growing now
In the house beneath the great crags.

Cold water . . .

The flowers are growing beautifully;
The leaves are falling down;
The people have gone;
The flowers are on the ground.

Cold water . . .


Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: sian, west wales
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 10:48 AM

Now, that'll teach me to check back after lunch. I've just listened to the track again to copy the words out and, yes, those seem to be spot on.

This is a protest song of the late 1960s, and one that has very much won it's place as a 'folk' song. It's worth looking at some history of Tryweryn , the place being sung about.

The issue of drowning Welsh communities to supply water for cities (not always English cities; Swanse, I believe, tried it on but lost) was very much a flashpoint over many decades. Some people might know of the film Last Days of Dolwyn about one of these cases. It's particularly worth seeing because (if I remember correctly) it includes footage of gypsy Hywel Wood step dancing.

sian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 11:53 AM

Is that supposed to be 'Cold water is seeping in Tryweryn . . .' not sleeping? 'Seeping' might not be the English word we would use, but it does convey the idea of the advancing water slowly drowning the place. Whereas the idea of water sleeping conveys nothing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: GUEST,Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 12:46 PM

The Welsh word is 'cysgu' meaning 'to sleep'. It's only coincidence here that 'sleep' and 'seep' are one letter apart.

This is all about the drowning of a large section of the Afon Tryweryn valley to provide a reservoir for water supply to Liverpool. The debate started in 1956; legislation to enable it was passed in 1957; and work was completed in 1965 (via many protests and several explosions).

In 2005, Liverpool Corporation unanimously agreed an apology for the works, which have become a symbol of the arrogant disregard for Wales and Welsh culture, and why Meic Stevens's song remains so popular and retains such potency.

In the Tryweryn valley was the community of Capel Celyn, as well as individual farms and cottages. The song is, I think, intending to express the idea that it's not people who now sleep in the drowned houses, but the water, with the overtones that the water is somnolent and dark, in contrast to the vitality and brightness of the community that once lived there.

Lhiats,

Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
(Robert Probert, Ynys Manaw)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: sian, west wales
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 12:50 PM

Well, the Welsh is 'sleeping'; the old addage, that poetry is what gets lost in translation, holds true. I suppose it is imagery for a number of notions: that people are no longer sleeping/living there, that it is another drowned city of legend now (ref: Cantre'r Gwaelod ), maybe even echoes of knights sleeping under a hill waiting for a new call to arms.

"Seeping" wouldn't be in keeping with the overall intention of the piece, IMHO.

sian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: GUEST,Sherbs
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 04:20 PM

Thanks ever so much folks. I'm glad to see that I had the translation pretty much right. I know the story of Tryweryn, one of the reasons I have been so keen to get hold of the lyrics.

Sherbs

Subject: Lyr Add: TRYWERYN (Meic Stevens / Heather Jones)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 04:30 PM

Is this the English version of the same song?

TRYWERYN
(Meic Stevens / Heather Jones)

The poppies on the hill are still
The red rose in its bed lies dead
And flowers grow no more no more
In the land below the tall grey hills
The water is sleeping in Tryweryn
The water is sleeping in Tryweryn

The meadow where we'd played is grey
The valley and the field won't yield
And flowers grow no more no more
In the land below the tall grey hills
The water is sleeping in Tryweryn
The water is sleeping in Tryweryn

Darkness gathers now
Leaves fall from the bough
The people have all gone
Nothing can live on
The water is sleeping in Tryweryn
The water is sleeping in Tryweryn
The water is sleeping in Tryweryn

(sung by Heather Jones on the sampler 'Valley Lights', 1986)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: GUEST,Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 05:31 PM

Yes, that's a version of the same song, though not a direct translation. Heather Jones has had a long career of performing Welsh songs, and she and Meic Stevens have have appeared in various combinations over the years, including as a member of the band that made Meic's 'Icarus' album a couple of years ago.

I'd forgotten about that Valley Lights album, if it's the one I'm thinking of. Cor Goch Caerdydd sing Nkosi Sikelele (I'm guessing at the spelling here), the 'anthem' of the ANC, as the last track on the end of side one (for all vinyl lovers).

It's wonderful the way Mudcat has a way of sending me up to the far flung corners of the house to dig through the old vinyl collection. I'll just get my torch . . .

Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: Peace
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 05:41 PM

"There are a number of CD's titled "Celtic Crossroads." The one with a recording of "Tryweryn" by Gwenno is formally called Putumayo Presents: Celtic Crossroads - it's available at amazon.mudcat.org - and I think most of the Putumayo collections include lyrics."

Good eye, Joe. I was unable to read the fine print that contained the rest of the title.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 05:41 PM

It is sleeping not seeping, then. Okay.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 06:25 PM

Re: Valley Lights

Not long after 1986 I got my only chance to go to Ewan MacColl's singers club in London. A guy called Kevin Littlewood was doing a floorspot, singing about the murder of Hilda Murrell. I asked him afterwards whether he was the same K.L. doing 'Dulce and decorum est' on 'Valley Lights'. He looked slightly surprised and said: 'Ah, was it you who bought the album?' I believe it sold more than one copy but I liked the dry humour.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tryweryn
From: sian, west wales
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 05:54 AM

Well, it sold at least 3 if you have one, I have one and Bobby Bob has one. That's edging towards respectability.

sian