Claf Abercuawg


Claf Abercuawg is the modern title of a 32-stanza medieval Welsh englyn-poem. According to Jenny Rowland, 'most critics would classify it among the most sophisticated and moving all the early englynion poems'; it is 'the classic example' of meditative, lyric, at least implicitly religious, early Welsh poetry.

Content and style

The poem gradually reveals itself as a monologue by a person who is ill, probably with leprosy, as he laments his exile from society and the ruin of his homestead. It is characterised by the use of the natural world as a frame and reference point for human emotion, shifts of focus from the speaker's observations on his particular situation and gnomic observations on life in general, and jumps from one subject to another producing tantalising juxtapositions. The poem has frequently been compared with the roughly contemporaneous Old English poems The Wanderer and The Seafarer.

Manuscripts and dating

The poem is attested principally in the late fourteenth-century Red Book of Hergest. It was also included in the White Book of Rhydderch, but is now lost due to damage to the manuscript. However, it is attested in two later manuscripts descended from the White Book, Peniarth 111, whose spelling is very close to the White Book's, and London, British Library, Add. MS 31055, which is a less conservative copy. National Library of Wales 4973 section b contains the poem. Its relationship to the other manuscripts is complex and may represent a conflation of multiple medieval sources, but it seems to have at least some independent value as a witness to the lost archetype of the poem. It is fairly clear that all these manuscripts descend from a lost common original, to which they are all fairly similar, making the creation of a critical edition of the poems relatively straightforward. In all the independent witnesses, Claf Abercuawg precedes the cycle of englyn-poems known as Canu Llywarch Hen; indeed, in the White Book, Claf Abercuawg is entitled 'Englynion Mabclaf ap Llywarch'. However, modern scholars do not see it as linked to the Llywarch Hen material.
Despite surviving first in fourteenth-century manuscripts and in largely Middle Welsh orthography, the poem is thought to have been composed in Old Welsh and transmitted orally and/or in manuscript, due to its archaic style and occasionally archaic spelling. Jenny Rowland judges that it dates from between the mid and late ninth century.

Influence

The poem was translated into English by the poet Edward Thomas in his influential book Beautiful Wales. It was also influential on R. S. Thomas, who gave a lecture entitled Abercuawg in 1977, referring several times to Claf Abercuawg.

Text and translation

As edited by Ifor Williams and translated by Jenny Rowland, the poem runs:
Middle Welsh textTranslation
1Goreiste ar vrynn a eruyn uym bryt,
Kyfreu eichyawc yn dolyd Cuawc.
a loud song in the meadows of Cuawg.
Woe to the sick man who hears them constantly.
7Yn Aber Cuawc, cogeu a ganant.
Llewychyt lloer; oer deweint.
Crei vym bryt rac gofit heint.		Noisy are the birds; wet the valleys.
The moon shines; the dead of night is cold.
My heart is raw because of the affliction of disease.
12Gwynn gwarthaf neint; deweint hir.
Deil cwydit; divryt divro.
Ny wadaf, wyf claf heno.		Noisy are the birds; wet the shingle.
Leaves fall; the exile is dispirited.
I will not deny I am ill tonight.
14Gordyar adar; gwlyb traeth.
Eglur nwyure; ehalaeth
Tonn; gwiw callon rac hiraeth.		Noisy are the birds; wet the shore.
Bright the sky; expansive is
the wave. The heart is withered because of longing.
15Gordyar adar; gwlyb traeth.
Eglur tonn, tuth ehalaeth.
Agret y mabolaeth;
Carwn bei kaffwn etwaeth.		Noisy are the birds; wet the shore.
bright the wave of expansive movement.
That which was loved in boyhood —
I would love if I were to get again.
16Gordyar adar ar edrywy ard.
Pan vryssyant ketwyr y gat,
Mi nyt af; anaf ny'm gat.		Early summer — every growth is fair.
When warriors hasten to battle
I do not go; an affliction does not permit me.
18Kynteuin, kein ar ystre.
Pan vrys ketwyr y gatle,
Mi nyt af: anaf a'm de.		Early summer — fair on the region.
When warriors hasten to the battlefield
I do not go; my affliction burns me.
19Llwyt gwarthaf mynyd; breu blaen onn.
Yn y westua yd edewis.
Crei vym bryt; cryt a'm dewis.		Today for me is the end of a month
in the hostel which he has left.
My heart is raw, fever ?has seized me.
21Amlwc golwc gwylyadur.
Gwnelit syberwyt segur.
Crei vym bryt; cleuyt a'm cur.		Clear is the sight of the water.
The idle one performs generosity.
My heart is raw; illness wastes me.
22Alaf yn eil; meil am ved.
Nyt eidun detwyd dyhed.
Amaerwy adnabot amyned.		Cattle are in the shed; mead is in the bowl.
The wise man does not desire discord.
The bond of understanding is patience.
23Alaf yn eil; meil am lat.
Llithredawr llyry; llonn cawat.
A dwfyn ryt; berwyt bryt brat.		Cattle are in the shed; ale is in the bowl.
Slippery are the paths; fierce the shower.
?... the ford. The mind concocts treachery.
24Berwit brat anuat ober.
Bydaut dolur pan burer,
Gwerthu bychot yr llawer.		It concocts treachery — an evil deed.
There will be grief when it is atoned for:
exchanging for a little thing a great one.
25Pre ator pre ennwir.
Pan uarno Douyd, dyd hir,
Tywyll vyd geu; goleu gwir.		?.......... wicked.
When the Lord judges on the long day
the false will be black, the true bright.
26Kerygyl yn dirch mat; kyrchynyat kewic.
Vann y rwng gran a gro.
Krei vym bryt rac lletvryt heno.		I have heard a heavy-pounding wave,
loud between the beach and shingle.
My heart is raw because of depression tonight.
28Osglawc blaen derw; chwerw chweith onn.
Chwec evwr; chwerthinat tonn.
Ny chel grud kystud callon.		Branching is the tip of the oak; bitter the taste of the ash.
Cowparsley is sweet; laughing the wave.
The cheek cannot conceal the distress of the heart.
29Ymwng ucheneit a dyneit arnaf,
Ys tiryeit yr a'e derlly.
Cas dyn yman yw cas Duw vry.		The leper was a squire; he was a bold warrior
in the court of a king.
May God be kind to the outcast.

Editions and translations