A Poem by Elin ap Hywel, Translated to english by Laura Fisk

Before the next wave

(a dolphin in Ceredigion bay)

Seeking the bay with tired eyes, and seeing

Epiphany in the middle of the summer in Aberystwyth 

–  Epiphany, night of odd offerings

and the afternoon sparkling like a child’s wrapping paper –

Dylan Eildon, baby of the sun and salt water

laughing in your crib, your green bed,

no mum but for the waves to soothe your tears.

We, the imprudent ones, approach

to place our tributes at your breast –

faith, hope, love and vicissitude

for a moment of harmlessness before the wave,

before the next wave.

Cyn y don nesaf

(dolffin ym Mae Ceredigion)

Chwilio’r bae â llygaid blin, a gweld

Ystwyll ar ganol ha’ yn Aberystwyth 

– Epiffani, noson o roddion rhyfeddol

a’r pnawn yn pefrio fel papur anrheg plentyn –

Dylan Eildon, baban yr haul a’r heli

yn chwerthin yn dy grud, dy wely gwyrdd

heb fam i suo’th ddagrau ond y tonnau.

Ninnau, yr annoethion, yn nesáu

i osod ein hanrhegion ger dy fron –

ffydd, gobaith, cariad yn gyfnewid 

am ennyd o ddiniweidrwydd cyn y don,

cyn y don nesaf.

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Elin ap Hywel is a Welsh poet, translator and editor. Her collected poems in Welsh, Dal i Fod (Still Here), edited by Menna Elfyn, was published by Barddas in 2020 and was short-listed for the Wales Book of the Year Award in 2021.

Laura Fisk‘s translations of Elin ap Hywel’s poetry have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation and Syndic. Recent publications of her own work include full collections translated into Estonian by Ilmar Lehtpere and Macedonian by Julijana Velichkovska.