I’m an artist, translator and editor, currently studying an MLitt in drawing at GSA. I completed an undergraduate degree in Welsh and Philosophy at Cardiff University, Wales. My work is concerned with playing with language and translation, landscape and material to seek new ways of communicating. I edit Cyhoeddiadau’r Stamp, an independent press encouraging new writing through the medium of Welsh, and mwnwgl, a journal of experimental artistic writing. I recently co-curated National Museum Wales’ 9th issue of Cynfas, and am co-editing a forthcoming anthology of writing by Welsh women with Honno Press. I love collaborating.
mŵ beep / Friends in Knead
Esyllt Angharad Lewis
Listen to an audio clip of Esyllt narrating ‘mŵ beep / Friends in Knead’ below.
Transcript
Mae’r Gwanwyn yn y tir
ac yn y sgyrsiau sy’n tynnu rhwng llefydd
a pherllanau, a phobl a pherthi
a phwy sy’n gywir a hawliau pwy sydd fwyaf pwysig a hawl i fyw adra.
A, a, a …
Mae sawl peth sydd yn wir ar yr un pryd. Mae cig yn blasu’n dda a mae llysiau’n
blasu’n dda hefyd, mewn ffyrdd gwahanol ac mae cnydau yn werthfawr a llaeth hefyd. Mae peiriant yn hen hen air Cymraeg sydd yn y Gododdin a sydd hefyd yn y Tesco mawr ger Abertefi a Chaerfyrddin, ac Abertawe, a Bangor yn ogystal … hefyd.
Hefyd efo fo/fi/hi/she/her/they/them
dydy ffermio ddim yn gelfyddyd, dogfen ydyw.
Nid oes creu celf o amaeth,
peth rhy ymarferol ar gyfer paent a phlu.
Ond mae plu yn cael eu plycio i greu ffowls blasus i fwrdd cinio Dydd Sul,
dillad tynn yn gwasgu mwy,
‘rôl Capel.
Byw i ffwrdd o’r grid. Dim llinellau, dim graff, dim taenlenni excel, allan o’r pwyntiau bwled cyfyng a mas i’r byd. Mewn pyllau a chaeau mae codau amrywiol. Mae gwybodaeth hen a mae gwybodaeth newydd, y ddau ill dau Dai Jones yn cydfyw?
Pwy sy’n ‘decide’ pwy hawl a what’s a privilege?
I believe I know exactly what is right
in fact that I know two languages
rubbing up against each udder
moooooooo.
I believe,
dwi’n gwybod
beth sy’n iawn yn fy nealltwriaeth
o gnydau perlysieuol,
perlewygol
cyfansoddiadol, raenus.
Bip, bip.
Translation
There is Spring in the land
And in the conversations that pull between places
And orchards and people and hedges
Who’s correct and whose rights are most important and the right to live at home
And, and, and …
More than one thing can be true. Meat and vegetables taste good in different ways and crops are valuable, and milk too. ‘Peiriant’ is an old, old Welsh word which is in the Gododdin and also in the big Tesco by Cardigan, and Carmarthen, and Swansea, Bangor too … too.
With him/I/she/hi/nhw/nhw
Farming is not an art but a document
There is no creating art from agri
A much too practical thing for paint and feathers.
Yet feathers are plucked to make tasty fowls for the Sunday lunch table
Snug clothes tightening
after Chapel.
Living away from the grid. No lines, no graph, no excel spreadsheets, outside the
confined bullet point and out towards the world. In pools and fields there are an assortment of codes. There’s old information and new information, cohabiting like both Dai Jones’?
Who ‘penderfynu’ what right and beth sy’n fraint?
Dwi’n credu dwi’n gwybod yn union yr hyn sy’n iawn
y ffaith fy mod i’n siarad dwy iaith
Yn mŵŵŵŵŵŵytho yn erbyn ei gilydd
Dwi’n credu
I know
what is right in my understanding
of herbal
trancelike
constitutional, well-groomed crops.
Beep, beep.
Translated by Megan Jones/ Cyfieithiad gan Megan Jones