Translating Culhwch and Olwen; The Great Boar Hunt and David Jones

The hunting of the great boar, Twrch Trwyth, in Culhwch and Olwen is a magnificent piece of writing. 

Jones' The Hunt is not so much a translation as a response, and it too is magnificent.

 

I have finished the first draft of my translation. Olwen and Culhwch are sleeping together, Ysbadadden's shaved and mutilated head is on a stick, possibly visible from their bedroom window, and no one could tally the men who have died to bring about this ending. 

 

Arthur gathered the hosts, 

of the three Islands of Britain,

and the three adjacent islands, 

and of Brittany, Normandy, 

and the Summer country

 

And let it be proclaimed,

the hunting of the hog,

has been sung by David Jones

and neither Taliesin nor Aneirin

nor Dafydd ap Gwilym himself

The Early Bards, 

the Not So Early bards, 

the Poets of the Princes, 

the Poets of the Well to Do

the keepers of old lore, or

the skilled translators of his vanished tongue,

(loving this story in elegant prose translations)

nor modern experts in the intricate cynghanedd 

nor any poet of that other language,

could sing it better. 

My recording of The Hunt by David Jones is here:

http://www.liamguilar.com/the-poetry-voice/2019/4/2/david-jones-the-hunt

 

There’s a recording of David Jones reading The Hunt with a short introduction here:

https://bebrowed.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/david-jones-reads-the-hunt/