"Beautiful she was" -- now *there's a Welsh ol' construction. And 'there's a
shame' or the like is something I find myself saying a lot, somehow more so
as I get older. My mother and all the tribe of my aunts are long dead, and
the intonations are coming out more rather than less in my voice.
Yes, Sketty is in the armpit between Swansea and the Gower, though I believe
it's now pretty well a suburb of Swansea. I've only been there twice; my
knowledge of the place comes from family tales and talk; and diw, there's
good at talking the Welsh are. It wasn't feuds with my lot though, but a
huge clan, which has somewhat drifted apart since my youngest aunt (the one
who kept everybody in touch) died.
And thanks so much for the text of Sospan Fach -- I didn't know the second
verse, and am glad to have it.
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Day" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 11:14 PM
Subject: Re: help--translation query
When I did my course in Caen, we had a Breton teacher and she sang
Breton folk songs. Beautiful she was, in voice and looks. Now the
English, well, they were dead sarcastic til I pointed out that the
Bretons wanted autonomy as much as the next person. Political she was
in her song.
Sketty - that's the Gower right? My mother never had a good word for
the Gower, but then she was never artistic. Or very Welsh. Typically,
though, she held long-running feuds with her siblings, except the
dead ones. Even there, the peat smoulders still.
I got beat to fuck in Caerphilly ("the double diamond club") on my
cousins account. I ended up in a Liverpool hospital for 2 days. It
still hurts. l love Swansea and Caerdydd though.
One aspect of my love of welsh has been my desire for song in my
poetry. Can't get away from it. The words have to sing with each
other, see? Otherwise it isn't...right.
Roger
On 3/12/06, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The Bretons are Sioni-onions too, so you'll probably get let off.
>
> Now there's a thing. My mam said, when the Breton onion sellers used to
> come
> round with their bikefuls of onions, the people down Sketty used to speak
> Welsh to them, and they'd answer in whatever the Breton dialect is, and no
> misunderstanding.
>
> joanna
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