Shakespeare in Welsh at the Globe Theatre

On Sunday 22 April, Shakespeare’s Globe in London launched its Globe to Globe Festival with Sonnet Sunday, a six-hour literary marathon which saw all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets performed in more than 25 different languages. Sonnet 104 was adapted into Welsh by Professor Peredur Lynch of Bangor’s School of Welsh and recited by the actor Owain Arthur who is currently starring in One Man, Two Guvnors in the West End. Other languages appearing included Somali, Cree, Romanian, Swedish, Flemish, Hungarian, Gaelic, Farsi, Icelandic, Bulgarian, Arabic, and Latvian.

Although the Shakespearean sonnet is a well established metre in Welsh, Professor Lynch adaption was based on the ‘cywydd’ metre, a traditional form of Welsh alliterative strict-metre poetry which was a dominant feature of Welsh poetry during Shakespeare's lifetime. According to Professor Lynch, “If Shakespeare
ever heard Welsh poetry being performed, there is a strong possibility that he would have heard a ‘cywydd’”

Sonnet 104

To me fair friend you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still: three winters cold,
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned,
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
Since first I saw you fresh which yet are green.
Ah yet doth beauty like a dial hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived,
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived.
For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred,
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.

Professor Lynch’s adaption reads as follows:

Nid wyf yn dy weled di
Un ennyd mewn penwynni.
Yn harddwych, lle y cerddi,
Tu hwnt i henaint wyt ti.

Ond fe ddaeth tro’r tymhorau
Wedi awr ein serch ni’n dau.
Aeth tri haf yn aeaf oer
A’u hwyrnosau’n farn iasoer.
Fe ddaeth tri hydref gan ddwyn
Trwy gynnwrf ein tri gwanwyn,
A Mehefin i grino
Irder iach Ebrill ar dro.

Yn araf, araf, o hyd
Ni welaf – fy anwylyd –
Ddafn rôl dafn, dy harddwch di
Yn dy wên yn dihoeni,
A’n heinioes yn ronynnau
O dywod rhwng dwylo dau

Ai twyll wêl y llygaid hyn?
A dreisiwyd hud y rhosyn?

Chwithau’r rhai sydd yma i ddod,
Ofer, ofer eich dyfod
A bydd cyn eich dod i’r byd
Eich hafau yn llwch hefyd.

Publication date: 24 April 2012