Gwaith Goronwy Owen Cyf I/Anfon Cywydd y Farn

Gwaith Goronwy Owen Cyf I

gan Goronwy Owen

golygwyd gan Owen Morgan Edwards

Cywydd y Farn

At WILLIAM MORRIS, Mai 7, 1752.

DEAR SIR,—NAGE, Fy Anwyl Gydwladwr, dilediaith, a ddylaswn ddywedyd, eithr os chwi a'm hesgusoda am hyn o dro, chwi a gewch o Gymraeg y tro nesaf.

I am exceedingly obliged to you and Mr. Ellis for your good opinion of my poor performance. As to the printing of it, it is to me a thing indifferent. I am in no way fond or ambitious of appearing in print and commencing author; for now, thank God. I have no vanity to be gratified in so doing. And if I ever had, my own sense, as I grew up, overtopped and mortified it; and this troublesome world, with my narrow circumstances in it, has now effectually killed it, root and branch.

Mr. Lewis Morris was pleased to favour me with an examination of it, and marked out some few slips in it as to the poetry, which I have since endeavoured to correct; but with what success, I have not yet heard; and I am unwilling that anything of mine should be made public without the consent and approbation of my tutor.

Perhaps, if God enables me, and the world. allows me time, I may make something that may be thought at least equal to Cywydd y Farn. If I had time to spare, my chief desire is to attempt something in epic poetry; but the shortness of the measures in our language makes me almost despair of success. I have not a turn of genius fit for ludicrous poetry, which I believe is best relished in Wales; and you may see that the few little witticisms in Cywydd y Farf are rather forced than natural. Dafydd ap Gwilym was perhaps the best Welshman, that ever lived, for that kind of poetry, and is therefore very deservedly admired for it. And, though I admire, and even dote upon, the sweetness of his poetry, I have often wished he had raised his thoughts to something more grave and sublime. Our language, undoubtedly, affords plenty of words, expressive and suitable enough for the genius even of a Milton; and had he been born in our country, we, no doubt, should have been the happy nation that could have boasted of the grandest, sublimest piece of poetry in the world. Our language excels most others in Europe, and why does not our poetry? It is to me very unaccountable. Are we the only people in the world that know not how to value so excellent a language? or do we labour under a national incapacity and dulness? Heaven forbid it! Why, then, is our language not cultivated? Why do our learned men blame the indolence of their forefathers in former ages for transmitting so little of their learning to posterity, and yet, at the same time, wallow in the same security and indolence themselves?

[At Richard Morris, Awst 15.1752.]

SIR, Dyma 'ch llythyr wedi cyrhaeddyd hyd yma; a da iawn oedd gennyf ei weled, ac nid bychan ei groesaw er mwyn y llaw a'i hysgrifennodd. E fu frwnt anial gennyf lawer gwaith er pan ysgrifennais atoch o'r blaen, na buaswn yn gyrru i chwi "Gywydd y Farn." Nis gwn, pe crogid fi, pa fodd y bu hynny o wall arnaf; eithr boed sicr gennych mai nid anewyllysgarwch oedd yr achos, ond byr feddwl. Tybio wnawn i, fal hurtyn, mai amgenach fyddai gennych ei gael yn argraffedig; heb ystyried mai unig gymeradwyaeth yr anrheg oedd hanfod o honaw o law yr awdwr. Ba wedd bynnag, os rhynga fodd ichwi esgusodi hynny o esgeulusdra, llyma for ichwi yn awr fal y mae gennyf finnau, trwy "ei law a'i loewon," fal y dywedynt.

Nodiadau