The Poems of Dafydd AP Gwilym

by Joseph P. Clancy

Dafydd ap Gwilym as the finest medieval Welsh poet, producing over 150 innovative poems, encompassing themes of love and disappointment, sin and sanctity, comedy and despair, interacting with both the natural world and the transforming "modernity" of fourteenth-century Wales. In this book, Joseph P. Clancy, the foremost translator of Welsh literature into English, employs the most recent editions of Dafydd's full works and, for the first time, presents his poetry in an attempted sequence, allowing readers to see the development of the poet and his art. Above all, these new translations highlight Dafydd's remarkable 'literary self", his finest creations.

390 pages, Paperback

Published May 20, 2016

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the biggest problems with translating Welsh medieval poetry is that the language, the sounds, play such an important role in a poem's effectiveness. These are good, serviceable and even musical at times translations, but the poems take on a sameness in tone that gets wearying around page 200 or so. Better to just dip in and read a few here-and-there than to tackle the whole book. Reading no more than ten or so pages at a time is recommended.