Welsh Poems and Ballads — A Closer Reading

Borrow's Translating Hand

The excerpts reveal Borrow's consistent method: he favors regular meter and rhyme, often expanding or compressing the original to fit his couplets. In Iolo Goch's "Ode to Glendower," the line "The chair of judgment thou didst gain, / But not to deal in judgments vain" shows Borrow moralizing the source, adding a note of ethical commentary absent from the likely original. Similarly, in "Griffith ap Nicholas" by Gwilym ab Ieuan Hen, Borrow's translation leans into hyperbolic praise—"Hail chieftain, Cambria's choicest boast!"—that amplifies the bardic tradition of mawl (praise) but with a distinctly English rhetorical flourish. Readers should note how Borrow's voice intrudes: his diction is often more Latinate and his syntax more balanced than the concise Welsh originals would suggest.

Dialogues and Debates in Verse

Two poems in the excerpts, Twm o'r Nant's "Riches and Poverty" and the fragment from "The Song of Deirdre," use dramatic dialogue. In "Riches and Poverty," the personified figures debate the four elements as a metaphor for social hierarchy, with Poverty questioning why "such jarring and warring" exists. Borrow renders this debate in stichomythic exchanges, preserving the catechism-like structure. The poem's philosophical turn—"Of elements four did our Master create"—echoes medieval encyclopedic traditions, but Borrow's translation emphasizes the moral lesson over the folk humor likely present in the original Welsh interludes. This section shows Borrow at his most didactic, turning a popular performance piece into a moral allegory.

Nature and Place in the Lyrics

Dafydd ab Gwilym's "The Mist" and Lewis Morris's "The Cuckoo's Song in Meiron" exemplify the nature poetry that pervades the collection. Borrow's translations of these lyrics often heighten the descriptive elements: "The Mist" likely becomes more atmospheric in his English, while "The Cuckoo's Song" uses onomatopoeia and regular rhythm to mimic bird calls. The quatrains from Wild Wales—such as "Englyn: Dinas Bran" with its line "Gone, gone are thy Gates"—show Borrow working in the strict cynghanedd tradition, though he cannot replicate the Welsh sound-patterning. Instead, he relies on alliteration and repetition to suggest the original's intricacy. Readers should compare these shorter pieces with the longer odes to see how Borrow adapts his style to different poetic forms.

The Editorial Frame: Rhys's Selection

Ernest Rhys's introduction and arrangement shape how the poems are read. He groups poems by source—Borrow's manuscripts, Wild Wales, Targum—and includes a section of "Quatrains and Stray Stanzas" that collects epigrams and epitaphs. This organization foregrounds Borrow's process of gathering and translating, rather than presenting a systematic anthology of Welsh poetry. The inclusion of Irish material—Carolan's laments, "The Delights of Finn Mac Coul"—broadens the scope but also reflects Borrow's own interests as a polyglot and traveler. Rhys's notes, though not excerpted here, likely clarify Borrow's textual sources. For a first reading, the table of contents serves as a map: the reader can trace Borrow's movement from formal odes to folk verses, noting how his style shifts with each genre.

As you read, attend to the tension between Borrow's desire for accuracy and his instinct for dramatic effect. The poems are best approached not as transparent windows onto Welsh tradition, but as creative acts of cultural mediation. Compare the longer odes with the quatrains to see how Borrow's voice modulates, and note where his translations seem to strain against the original's constraints. This collection rewards a patient reader willing to consider both what is preserved and what is transformed.

Reading Borrow’s stiff, lovely translations, I remembered sitting with my grandfather’s old copy of Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes. Volume I. — Text and Context, the pages soft with years. Both books felt like listening to someone hum a tune they half-remembered — the emotion clear, the exact words a little blurred, yet somehow truer for that distance.