Author: Evan Evans

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2016-09-07

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 9781333489755

Excerpt from Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards: Translated Into English, With Explanatory Notes on the Historical Passages, and a Short Account of Men and Places Mentioned by the Bards The following poems, from among many others of greater length, and of equal merit, were taken from a manuscript of the learned Dr. Davies, author of the Dictionary, which he had transcribed from an ancient vel lom ms. Which was wrote, partly in Edward the Second and Third's time, and partly in Henry the Fifth's, containing the works of all the Bards from the Conquest to the death of Llewelyn, the last prince of the British line. This is a noble treasure, and very rare to be met with for Edward the First ordered all our Bards, and their works, to be destroyed, as is attested by Sir John Wynne of Gwydir, in the history be compiled of his ancestors at Carnarvon. What remained of their works were conveyed in his time to the Exchequer, where he complains they lay in great confusion, when he had occasion to consult them. As to the translation, I have endeavoured to render the sense of the Bards faithfully, without confining myself to too servile a version; nor have I, on the other hand, taken liberty to wander much from the originals unless where I saw it absolutely necessary, on account of the different phraseology and idiom of language. If this small collection has the good fortune to merit the attention of the public, I may, in some future time, if God permit me life and health, proceed to translate other select pieces from the same manuscript. The poems, in the original, have great merit; and if there is none in the translation of this specimen, it must be owing entirely to my inability to do the Bards justice. I am not the only person who admires them: men of the greatest sense and learning in Wales do the same. It must be owned, that it is an arduous task to bring them to make any tolerable figure in a prose translation but those who have any candour, will make allowances. What was said of poetry in general by one of the wits, that it is but Prose run mad, may very justly be applied to our Bards in particular: for there are not such extravagant ights in any poetic compositions, except it be in the Eastern, to which, as far as I can judge by the few translated specimens I have seen, they bear a great resemblance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."