T.H. Parry-Williams: Ty'r Ysgol (From Welsh)

Ty'r Ysgol*
By T.H. Parry-Williams
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click here to hear me recite the original

The chimneys smoke despite contrary winds,
And someone comes, at times, to sweep the floor
And open windows out, though no one since
The great dispersal lives there anymore
Save on vacation for a month of rest
From city life in rural August air,
To stroll around till people are perplexed
To see us back in town, and start to stare;
And everybody wonders why, today,
We, who lost mom and dad in years gone by,
Hold on to this old home a world away.
That's how it is, and I do not know why,
Unless for fear the buried parents would
Sense somehow that the doors were locked for good.

*Ty’r Ysgol (Welsh for "School-house") refers to the schoolhouse where Parry-Williams was brought up in the village of Rhyd-ddu at the foot of Mt. Snowdon. His father was a schoolmaster.


The Original:

Ty'r Ysgol

Mae’r cyrn yn mygu er pob awel groes,
A rhywun yno weithiau’n‘sgubo’r llawr
Ac agor y ffenestri, er nad oes
Neb yno’n byw ar ôl y chwalfa fawr;
Dim ond am fis o wyliau, mwy neu lai,
Yn Awst, er mwyn cael seibiant bach o’r dre
A throi o gwmpas dipyn, nes bod rhai
Yn synnu’n gweld yn symud hyd y lle;
A phawb yn holi beth sy’n peri o hyd
I ni, sydd wedi colli tad a mam,
Gadw’r hen le, a ninnau hyd y byd,-
Ond felly y mae-hi, ac ni wn pam,
Onid rhag ofn i’r ddau sydd yn y gro
Synhwyro rywsut fod y drws ynghlo.