A Poem by / Cerdd gan Ruth Sharman

Translated by  / Cyfieithwyd gan Siân Melangell Dafydd 

Stink bug

Not stink exactly,
more the smell of paper
spotted with age – the way the pages 
of a book can pull you in,
connecting to some memory
that’s hard to place –

because this little insect,
when I lift it, gently, off the arm
of my chair, releases
something nutty and sweet,                             
like creosote or marzipan or pear,                                     
and this time I get it – a whiff

of that long-ago garden
where I’m turning over stones, 
peering under leaves, hair in my eyes, 
sun on the back of my head,
scratched and stung
but too busy to notice or care.

Drewbryf

Sydd ddim yn drewi’n union,
debycach i arogl papur
smotiog gan oed – fel mae tudalennau llyfr 
yn gallu tynnu rhywun i mewn,
cysylltu â rhyw o frith gof
anodd ei gofio’n glir

gan fod y pryfyn bach,
pan godaf o’n ysgafn oddi ar fraich
o fy nghadair, yn rhyddhau
rhywbeth o oglau cnau melys
fel creosote neu farsipán neu gellyg,
a’r tro hwn dwi’n dal peth ohonno – chwiw

o ryw ardd erstalwm
lle dwi’n troi cerrig drosodd,
yn syllu o dan ddail, gwallt yn fy llygaid,
haul ar gefn fy mhen,
wedi fy nghrafu, wedi fy mhigo 
ond yn rhy brysur i sylwi na phoeni.

Ruth Sharman is the author of Birth of the Owl Butterflies (Picador) and Scarlet Tiger (Templar’s Straid Collection Award, 2016). In 2019, she received a Society of Authors Foundation Grant to revisit South India – where she was born – and produce the poems for her third collection, Rain Tree (Templar, 2022).