Gwaith Goronwy Owen Cyf II/Dafydd ap Gwilym

← Patriotism

Gwaith Goronwy Owen Cyf II gan Goronwy Owen golygwyd gan Owen Morgan Edwards

Y Pedwar Mesur ar Hugain →

DAFYDD AB GWILYM.
[At William Morris, Rhag. 18, 1753

I AM under no manner of concern about my works. It is equal to me whether they are printed or continue as I have written them for eighty or a hundred years longer. Let them. take their chance, and shift for themselves, and share the common fate of all sublunary things. If I have not a better immortality than they can procure me, I had even as good have none. Yet they, amongst others, may help to preserve our language to posterity; and so far, and no further, a wise man and a lover of his country ought to regard them.

Y mae'n resynol (chwedl chwithau) weled mor ddigydwybod y mae poblach yn llurguniaw ac yn sychmurniaw gwaith yr hen Ddafydd ap Gwilym druan.

I wish people were once so far in their right minds as to think they could not mend Dafydd ap Gwilym's works; then they would certainly never mar them. Dafydd ap Gwilym, it is true, had his foibles, as well as other mortals. He was extravagantly fond of filching an English word. now and then, and inserting them in his works, which makes me wonder what should induce the judicious Dr. Davies to pitch upon him as the standard of pure Welsh. Whereas he, of all others of that age, seems least deserving of the honour. I know that that babbler, Theophilus Evans, author of Drych y Prif Oesoedd, pretends to say that "Davy" understood never a word of English; but the way he goes about to prove his barefaced assertion, is a sufficient confutation of it, and enough to make the bold assertor ridiculous to boot. How many English words are there to be met with, in those fragments of his only, that are quoted by Dr. Davies? Mwtlai is one of them; and what is that else but the English word "mottley"? Is lifrai a pure Welsh word? And what can you make of habrisiwn, mên, and threbl, and a great many more? I think "livery," "habergeon," "mean," and "trebble," are but indifferent Welsh words for purity. But, all that notwithstanding, I think it would be a notable piece of service to our language, to have his works printed; though it would give to the English a pleasure they have long wanted; I mean of making it appear that we borrowed as many words at least from them, as they did from us, which yet would be true of no one else but Dafydd ap Gwilym himself; for I do not think he made many proselytes to his fond way of blending Welsh and English together; else our language had long before now been a most horrid gibberish.

Digon yw hyn yn nghylch Dafydd. Ond ni ddarfu mi a chychwi eto. Yn rhodd, a fyddwch cyn fwyned yn y nesaf a gadael i mi wybod, pa newydd annghysurus a glywsoch o Gaer Nerpwl; oblegid ni chlywais i ddim rhyfedd sydd nes ati. Gwir yw nis bum yno er ys ennyd. Ond odid i ddim a dalo i son am dano ddigwydd yno na chlywyf mewn amser. Ac am eich Ac am eich gweddi—"Duw o'i drugaredd a ystyrio wrth ein gwendidau," yr wyf yn dywedyd "Amen" o ewyllys fy nghalon, er nas gwn ar ba achos yr ystwythwyd y weddi.