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Poems for the Road/ Cerddi’r Ffordd
Golygyddion gwadd y flodeugerdd oedd Ness Owen a Sian Northey.
Edited by and translated by Sian Northey and Ness Owen, with additional translations from Siôn Aled, and the authors.
1st March 2022 114pp Cymraeg/English £9.99
Arachne Press acknowledges the financial support of Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru/ Books Council of Wales
Forget the road not taken ( Frost), this one, the A470, is indeed well-travelled: with verve, the odd swerve and a sudden emergency stop to catch one’s breath at such fine poetry. There are leisurely journeys as well as the full throttle of family in tow. As readers we are able to be in transit and yet carefree. It is almost akin to those ‘mystery bus trips’ once so popular, when you never knew where you would end up. Who would have thought that such a legendary road, the most ‘talked about’ in Welsh life, the A470, would capture so many vistas with such poetic vivacity, that it would entice so many poets to freewheel their imaginations? Perhaps these poems should be placed as poetry-marker-stones all across the breadth of Wales, akin to the milestones of days gone by. Now that’s a thought. It deserves to travel widely in both languages, but really it speaks in a hundred voices. What a marvel of an anthology, and a much needed travel companion.
Menna Elfyn
Anghofiwch y lôn llai ei defnydd. Mae’r A470 yn un sydd wedi ei threulio a’i thrafaelio, o’r mwstwr i’r rhwystrau mawr a geir arni. Ceir teithiau hamddenol yn ogystal â rhai sy’n fater o raid i gyrraedd pen siwrnai. Fel darllenwyr, gallwn eistedd yn ôl yn hollol ddiofal gyda’r atgof o’r gwibdeithiau dirgel yna a drefnwyd slawer dydd heb wybod pen y daith. Pwy fyddai wedi meddwl y gallai heol mor chwedlonol, yr A470 fod yn destun sgwrs gan greu y fath fywiogrwydd , fel iddi ysbrydoli beirdd i ffri-wilio. Hwyrach y dylai’r cerddi hyn gyfnewid y meini gwyn ochr- y- ffordd fel y rhai a welir ar draws Cymru. Nawr dyna syniad ! Haedda’r gyfrol deithio ar hyd a lled yn y ddwy iaith ond ceir cant o leisiau yma. Rhyfeddod o flodeugerdd ac un hawdd -ei-chael fel cydymaith taith heb ei hail.
Menna Elfyn
A collection of original poems by Welsh poets, all written in reponse to the 186 mile road which runs the length of Wales – from shore to shore and north to south.
From the seashore to slate quarries, from nuclear power stations and fighter plane flypasts to forests, mountains and the capital city, the poems included here take us on a journey through memory, myth, love and grief:
‘Decades later, memory brings me
to the long trip up that narrow road
in the rearview mirror familiar Beacons shrinking’
A Mountain We Climb,
Rhys Owain Williams
The fully bilingual anthology includes 52 poems. The poems, which were submitted by writers in either English or Welsh in reponse to an open call, were chosen on merit and then translated into the other language, meaning that each work in the anthology is side by side with its translation either from, or into, Welsh, intended to celebrate the magnificence of both languages and the artistry of poets and translators.
Mae A470: Cerddi’r Ffordd, a fydd yn cael ei gyhoeddi fel llyfr clawr meddal ac fel e-lyfr, yn gasgliad o gerddi gwreiddiol gan feirdd o Gymru, pob un ohonynt yn ymateb i’r ffordd 186 milltir o hyd a red ar draws Cymru o arfordir y gogledd i arfordir y de.
Awn o’r traethau i’r chwareli llechi, o atomfeydd niwclear ac awyrennau rhyfel i goedwigoedd, mynyddoedd a’r brifddinas, ac mae’r cerddi yn ein harwain ar daith trwy gof ac atgof, chwedl,
cariad a galar.
Ddegawdau wedyn daw’r cof â fi
ar y daith hir hyd y ffordd gul
a’r Bannau cyfarwydd yn crebachu yn y drych
Mynydd i ni ei Ddringo,
Rhys Owain Williams
Mae’r gyfrol yn gwbl ddwyieithog ac yn cynnwys 52 o gerddi. Roedd gwahoddiad agored i feirdd gyflwyno cerddi Cymraeg neu Saesneg, dewiswyd y goreuon ac yna eu cyfieithu i’r iaith arall.
Golyga hyn bod pob cerdd yn ymddangos ochr yn ochr â’i chyfieithiad, cyfieithiad i’r Gymraeg neu o’r Gymraeg, orffenedig yw dathlu’r ddwy iaith ac arddangos doniau beirdd a chyfieithwyr.
The poems in A470 evoke both the childish wonder of travel and the call of home that grows with age. In journeying along Wales’s main artery, you can feel the heady pull of language that gives the world meaning and gifts the poet’s place in it. This is a superb anthology for lovers of poetry and lovers of Wales.
Kate North
A470 celebrates a familiar road in new and unexpected ways. Whether the narrator is fleeing from grief, rescuing a pipistrelle, or rediscovering a haunted village, these poems capture the beauty of Wales, and those who have travelled it’s length. A true collection of togetherness at a time when we need it most.
Mari Ellis Dunning
with poems from
Adele Evershed
Angela Graham
Annes Glynn
Belle Roach
Ben Ray
Cas Stockford
Christina Thatcher
clare e. potter
Conway Emmett
David Mathews
Des Mannay
Diana Powell
Eabhan Ní Shuileabháin
Gareth Culshaw
Gareth Writer-Davies
Glyn Edwards
Gwenno Gwilym
Gwyn Parry
Haf Llewelyn
Ion Thomas
Jeremy Dixon
Julian Brasington
K S Moore
Kevin Mills
Llyr Gwyn Lewis
Lowri Williams
Mari George
Matthew M C Smith
Mike Jenkins
Morgan Owen
Natalie Ann Holborow
Ness Owen
Nicholas McGaughey
Non Prys Ifans
Osian Jones
Osian Owen
Pat Edwards
Rae Howells
Rebecca Lowe
Rhiannon Oliver
Rhys Owain Williams
Sammy Weaver
Sara Louise Wheeler
Seth Crook
Sian Northey
Simon Chandler
Siôn Aled
Stephen Payne
Tracey Rhys
Tudur Dylan Jones
Reviews:
“Memories, myths and moments of love and grief are woven into a collection of poems celebrating an unusual subject – the A470 road that links north and south Wales.” – A470: Poems for the Road / Cerddi’r Ffordd featured in The Guardian
“Inside the pages there is something disarming about the quietness, the naturalness, with which each poem here is presented in both English and Welsh.” – Wales Arts Review
“Some of the places mentioned seem only to exist, as they do on journeys, as place names on signs; others, of course, mean everything, including home.” – The Welsh Agenda
