It was a pleasure (if bittersweet because of the ongoing war) to deliver the annual Waldo Williams lecture at Aberystwyth University last Friday.
120 years has passed since the birth of Waldo Williams, magnificent poet and pacifist. His work is as precious and prescient as ever and his plea for peace so far away from those who wish to pursue war.
Here is a poem I wrote in 2006 after the Israel – Lebanon war – Libanus is Welsh for Lebanon and the name of many chapels in Wales. My father was a minister in a chapel called Libanus, Llanelli, South Wales.
Published in Perffaith Nam / Perfect Blemish, Bloodaxe Books, 2007 (poem translated by Elin ap Hywel).
Scroll down for the Welsh original.
‘Poetry an act of peace’ – Pablo Neruda
Lebanon, The Pit
July, 2006
Many ration coupons ago
my father
was a minister
of light
at ‘Libanus’*,
‘Y Pwll’*,
Llanelli—a blind of steel away,
(two miles, and sixpence on the tram).
Twenty years later,
Libanus
was on TV,
The Pit
in black and white,
many a minister
having declaimed
more than the Word.
Twenty years more,
from minister to minister,
to this today,
the ‘good news’
blackened to ash.
In the arms of their fathers
a host of angels;
children of chance,
their damnation
an accident,
from Libanus
to Pwll,
the bottomless pit at the end of the world.
Many ration coupons ago
my sister, in a smocked dress,
sits on the manse wall
watching the churchyard.
She regards the mourners
standing at the graveside,
fully believing
that the people-who-had-died
were those holding the hankies,
wiping tears;
death was a counting game
for the four-year-old,
as she made out twenty corpses
singing ‘ O dyma gariad.’*
Libanus,
Pwll,
dead bodies
handkerchiefless
on the news
in full colour
and simultaneous black and white.
Many a minister
without good news.
And far from the tempest,
far from Libanus,
far too from Pwll
or gravesides,
one man* lies in a perfect peace
unsought-for, unasked,
under the solace of a clear light.
+++++++++++++
Wales has many place names taken from the Bible.
*Libanus – Lebanon
* Y Pwll – The Pit
* O dyma Gariad – much-sung hymn, ‘O what Love’
* Ariel Sharon
* 2024 – and the man who lies ( fibs) in perfect peace is Netanyahu.
+++++++++++++
See below Welsh original version of the poem:
Libanus, Y Pwll, 2006 a 2024
Gorffennaf, 2006
Cŵpons dogni yn ôl,
roedd fy nhad yn weinidog
yr Efengyl yn Libanus
Y Pwll.Llanelli – chwinciad dur i ffwrdd,
yn ddwy filltir, dwy geiniog ar y tram.
Ugain mlynedd wedyn,
roedd Libanus ar y teledu,
Pwll, yn ddu a gwyn;
sawl gweinidog yn cyhoeddi,
rhagor na’r ‘Gair’.
Ugain mlynedd eto,
hyd at heddiw,
o weinidog i weinidog
a’r ‘newyddion da’ yn lludw du.
Dan geseiliau eu tadau,
llu o angylion: ar hap- epil
a’r ddamwain oedd eu damnio;
o Libanus i’r Pwll
heb waelod yn y byd.
Cŵpons dogni yn ôl
fy chwaer mewn ffrog smoc,
ar wal y Mans
ochr draw i’r fynwent
yn gwylio angladd
ar lan y bedd,
gan gredu’n ddi-ffael
mai pobl-wedi-marw
oedd pob un â hances
yn sychu dagrau;
gêm gyfri oedd marw
i’r un bedair oed;
wrth iddi rifo ugain corff
yn canu ‘Dyma gariad’.
2024
Libanus, eto ac eto —
Pwll gwag lle bu bomiau
meirwon heb hancesi,
ar deledu lliw,
yn ddu a gwyn
a sawl gweinidog
heb yr Un Gair ‘da’.
Ac ymhell o’r dwndwr,
ymhell o Libanus,
ymhell bell o’r Pwll,
ymhell o lan y bedd,
mae un yn ei elfen,
heb boeni llygedyn am ei lygredd
o dan gysur goleuni’r camerâu
yn coroni ei hun heb gorun o gywilydd.