Simffoni Mara Prose
The piece is a triad, the traditional Welsh form in which proverbial statements of wisdom are grouped in threes. The structure of each couplet is similar, and they follow the Welsh traditional verse form of the ‘traethodl’, in which each line is a seven-syllable rhyming couplet, using unstressed and stressed rhymes. In each case, the lines are heavily alliterative, though stopping short of the full precise consonantal symmetry of the ‘cynghanedd’ system of strict metres. In each couplet, the final word of the second line is an extended vowel sound, allowing the ability to extend the choral sound in a manner consistent with the sense of the word. All three of the verses may be used, but each couplet can also stand alone.
Yn y dyfnder rhwng dwylan,
am ennyd, clywyd y gân.
In the depth between two shores,
for a moment, the music is heard.
Yn y dim rhwng y ddwy don,
yn y distawrwydd, mae’r dôn.
In the nothing between two waves,
in the silence, is the song.
Yn y gwynt, os gwrandewi,
mae llithiau a lleisiau’r lli.
In the wind, if you listen,
are the lessons, and the voices of the sea.
The piece deals with the Celtic mythology of the sea, with an oblique reference to the legend of the Welsh sea god Dylan Eil Don, ‘Dylan of the Second Wave’ / ‘Dylan Son of the Wave’. In each verse, also, there is the suggestion of the story of ‘Cantre’r Gwaelod’, the ‘inundation legend’ of the drowned land below Cardigan Bay, where the bells of the drowned city can, according to legend, still be heard under the waves.
In the first two verses, use is made of the important Celtic concept of the liminal space, the betwixt-and-between magical otherworld realm between two states of being: two waves, two shores. The first verse may also be understood as a reference to human life – a song between two shores. The second verse, with its reference to the apparently empty space between two waves, is a hint at the mysterious power which particle physics tells us resides in the empty spaces between identifiable physical phenomena, and which, therefore, is a reference to the wealth of wisdom which the seas still hold for humankind. The final verse continues that theme, suggesting that there is wisdom to be obtained from the natural world if we are only willing to listen. The word ‘llithiau’ (‘lessons’) carries the strong connotation of a lesson as in a reading from scripture: a formal statement of wisdom, suggesting that humankind needs to attend to and learn from the natural world.
