Welsh Verse

"Tony Conran, who translated it, is a great poet himself. He’s an academic, but they’re not academic translations and they’re magical. There are two lovely poems in the anthology I want to pick out. The first is the beautiful seventh-century poem called ‘Dinogad’s Petticoat’, which is a little lullaby to a child. It’s a poem from a Welsh manuscript – and don’t forget nearly all Welsh manuscripts were destroyed by Oliver Cromwell , so it’s remarkable it survived. Anybody would love it; it’s just gorgeous. Yes, you can’t imagine it, can you? The anthology has lots of other jewels all the way through it, of course. The second one I’ve chosen is called ‘The Shirt of a Lad’ and it’s a love poem. The woman is (assuming it’s a woman) washing the lad’s shirt in a river. Someone asks her to sell it and she says she won’t sell it for a whole mountain of sheep and she gives a list of things she wouldn’t sell the shirt for. The shirt represents her fidelity and it’s just beautiful. The other thing is, the introduction to the book is among the best and most lively and readable introductions to early Welsh verse and it’s beautiful to read. Of course, you wouldn’t expect me not to choose something Welsh. I have two Penguin copies, and Simon Armitage is trying to get one of them from me. I just can’t go anywhere without it."