Holl Waith Barddonol Goronwy Owen/Cywydd y Farn Fawr

← Hoc Fuit Antique Dictum

Holl Waith Barddonol Goronwy Owen gan Goronwy Owen golygwyd gan Isaac Foulkes

Awdl, yn ol dull Meilir Brydydd →

CYWYDD Y FARN FAWR,

Ac Esponiad Llewelyn Ddu.

DOD^[1] ym' dy nawdd, a hawdd hynt,
Duw hael, a deau helynt;
Goddau^[2] f' armerth,^[3] o'm nerthyd,
YW DYDD BARN a diwedd byd;
Dyddwaith, pa ham na'n diddawr,^[4]
Galwad i'r ymweliad mawr!

Mab Mair â gair yn gwiriaw
Y dydd, ebrwydded y daw;
A'i Saint cyttun yn unair
Dywedant, gwiriant y gair,
A gair Duw'n agoriad in',
Gair Duw, a gorau dewin;
Pan'd gwirair y gair a gaf?

Iach rad, a pham na chredaf?
Y dydd, diogel y daw—
Boed addas y byd iddaw
Diwrnod^[5] anwybod i ni,
A glanaf lu goleuni;
Nid oes, f' Arglwydd, a wyddiad
Ei dymp, onid Ef a'i Dad.

Mal cawr aruthr yn rhuthraw,
Mal lladron^[6] dison y daw
Gwae'r^[7] diofal ysmala!
Gwynfyd i'r diwyd a'r da!
Daw angylion, lwysion lu,
Llym naws â lluman^[8] IESU;
Llen o'r ffurfafen a fydd,
Ma! cynfas, mil a'i cenfydd,
Ac ar y llen wybrenog,
E rydd GRIST arwydd^[9] ei grog:

Yno 'r Glyw,^[10] Ner y gloywnef,
A ferchyg yn eurfyg nef!
Dyrcha'n uchel ei helynt,
A gwân^[11] adenydd y gwynt!
A'i angylion gwynion gant,
Miloedd yn eilio moliant.
Rhoi gawr^[12] nerthol, a dolef,
Mal clych yn entrych y nef,
Llef mawr goruwch llif mor—ryd,
Uwch^[13] dyfroedd aberoedd byd
Gosteg^[14] a roir, ac Ust! draw,
Dwrf rhaiadr, darfu rhuaw;
Angel a gân, hoywlan lef,
Felyslais, nefawl oslef;
With ei fant, groywber gantawr,

Gesyd ei gorn, mingorn mawr;
Corn anfeidrol ei ddolef,
Corn^[15] ffraeth o saerniaeth nef.
Dychleim, o nerth ei gerth gân,
Byd refedd,^[16] a'i bedryfan;
Pob cnawd, o'i heng, a drenga,
Y byd yn ddybryd ydd â;
Gloes oerddu'n neutu natur,
Daear a hyllt, gorwyllt gur!
Pob creiglethr, crog, a ogwymp,^[17]
Pob gallt^[18] a gorallt a gwymp

Ail i'r âr ael Eryri,^[19]
Cyfartal hoewal^[20] a hi.
Gorddyar^[21] bâr, a berw-ias
Yn ebyr,^[22] ym myr,^[23] ym mas;^[24]
Twrdd ac anferth ryferthwy,
Dygyfor ni fu för fwy-
Ni fu ddylif yn llifo
Ei elfydd yn nydd hen No.^[25]
Y nef yn goddef a gaid,
A llugyrn^[26] hon a'i llygaid,
Goddefid naws llid, nos llwyr,
Gan^[27]. lewyg gwýn haul awyr;
Nid mwy dilathr ac athrist
Y poen-loes cryf pan las Crist.
Y wenlloer^[28] yn oer ei nych,
Hardd leuad, ni rydd lewych:

Syrth nifer y sêr, arw son!
Drwy'r wagwybr^[29] draw i'r eigion;^[30]
Hyll ffyrnbyrth^[31] holl uffernbwll
Syrthiant drwy'r pant^[32] draw i'r pwll;
Bydd hadl^[33] wal^[34] ddiadlam
Y rhawg, a chwyddawg^[35] a cham;
Cryn y gethern^[36] uffernawl,
A chryn, a dychryn^[37] y diawl;
Cydfydd y fall^[38] â'i gallawr^[39]
Câr lechu'n y fagddu^[40] fawr.

Dyfyn a enfyn Dofydd,^[41]
Bloedd erchyll, rhingyll a'i rhydd:—
"Dowch y pydron^[42] ddynionach,
Ynghyd, feirw byd, fawr a bach:
Dowch i'r farn a roir arnoch,
A dedwydd^[43] beunydd y bo'ch."

Cyfyd^[44] fal yd o fol âr
Gnwd tew eginhad daear;
A'r môr^[45] a yrr o'r meirwon
Fil myrdd^[46] uwch dyfnffyrdd y dòn:
Try allan ddynion trillu^[47]—
Y sydd, y fydd, ac a fu,
Heb goll yn ddidwn hollol,
Heb un o naddun yn ol.
Y dorf^[48] ar gyrch, dirfawr gad!

A'n union ger bron Ynad.^[49]
Mab Mair ar gadair a gaid,
Iawn Naf gwyn o nef gannaid,
A'i osgordd,^[50] welygordd lân,
Deuddeg ebystyl diddan.
Cyflym y cyrchir coflyfr,
A daw^[51] i'w ddwy law ddau lyfr;
Llyfr bywyd, gwynfyd y gwaith,
Llyfr angau, llefair ingwaith.
Egorir a lleir^[52] llith
O'r ddeulyfr amryw ddwylith:
Un llith o fendith i fad;^[53]
A'r diles air deoliad.

Duw gwyn^[54] i le da y gyrr
Ei ddeiliaid a'i addolwyr.
I'r euog, bradog eu bron,
Braw tostaf; ba raid tystion?
Da, na hedd Duw^[55] ni haeddant,
Dilon yrr, delwi a wnant.
Y cyfion^[56] a dry Ion^[57] draw,
Dda hil, ar ei ddeheulaw;
Troir y dyhir, hyrddir hwy,
I le is ei law aswy:
Ysgwyd^[58] y nef tra llefair
IESU fad, a saif ei air:—
"Hwt!^[59] gwydlawn felltigeid lu
I uffern ddofn a'i fiwrn ddu,
Lle ddiawl, a llu o'i ddeiliaid,
Lle dihoen, a phoen na phaid;

Ni chewch ddyben o'ch penyd,
Diffaith^[60] a fu'ch gwaith i gyd;
Ewch, ni chynnwys y lwysnef
Ddim drwg, o lân olwg nef,
At wyllon^[61] y tywyllwg,
I oddef fyth ei ddu fwg."

O'i weision, dynion dinam,
Ni bydd a adnebydd nam;
Da'n ehelaeth a wnaethant,
Dieuog wyr, da a gânt.
Llefair yn wâr y câr cu,
Gwâr naws y gwir Oen Iesu:—
"Dowch^[62] i hedd, a da'ch haddef,^[63]
Ddilysiant anwylblant Nef,
Lle mae nefol orfoledd,
Na ddirnad ond mad a'i medd:^[64]
Man hyfryd yw mewn hoywfraint,
Ac amlder y ser o saint,
Llu dien^[65] yn llawenu,
Hefelydd^[66] ni fydd, ni fu;
O'm traserch, darfum trosoch^[67]

Ddwyn clwyf fel lle bwyf y bo'ch,
Mewn ffawd didor, a gorhoen,
Mewn byd heb na phyd na phoen."

Gan y diafl ydd â'r aflan,
A dieifl^[68] a'u teifl yn y tân.

Try'r Ynad draw i'r wiwnef,
A'i gâd gain â gyd ag ef,
I ganu mawl didawl da,
Oes hoenus! a Hosanna.

Boed im' gyfran o'r gân gu,
A melysed mawl IESU;
CRIST fyg a fo'r Meddyg mau,
Amen, a nef i minau.

Nodiadau

1. The first two lines are a solemn invocation of the Almighty, desiring his assistance in the prosecution of this work; the two following lines show the groundwork and design of the Poem; and the fifth and sixth lines take occasion to engage the reader's attention from the importance of the subject.
2. Amcan, design.
3. Yr hyn a ddarperir, neu a gymerir yn llaw; an undertaking.
4. Danr and diddawr, it concerns, &c. Pam na'n diddawr? hyny yw, Pam y byddwn ddifater o honaw? Pam na bai arnom ofal o'i blegyd? Once for all; I am to let the reader know, that it is not on account of obsoleteness, or obscurity in their meaning, that several words are explained in these notes, but that the British, like all other languages, hath its dialects; and that often, what is very well understood in North Wales is not so in South Wales, or in Powys-land, and the contrary our author therefore hath made use of all the dialects together in this Poem (as Homer hath done in Greek) and sometimes compounds, which the loftiness of his subject required, and which may not be very plain to any one of the dialects.
5. MATT. xxiv. 36.
6. 2 PET. iii. 10.
7. MATT. xxiv. 45, i'r diwedd.
8. Baner, standard.
9. MATT. xxiv. 30.
10. Llywydd
11. SALM Xviii. 10.
12. Bloedd
13. DAT. xiv. 2
14. DAT. viii. 1.
15. So Homer calls his Hero's Armour, and Virgil that of Eneas, and as there are manifest traces of the Hebrew idiom in the Works of the Greek Poets, it is not likely (notwithstanding the rest of the fable) that this way of speaking was borrowed of the Hebrews, who when they would represent a thing as superlatively great or excellent, usually join to it one of the names of God, El, Elohim, or Iah. The mountains of God (El.) in our English Bibles, Great Mountains, in the Welsh, mynyddoedd cedyrn, SALM xxxvi. 6, GEN. xxx. 8. The wrestlings of God (Elohim) or great wrestlings in the Welsh, ymdrechiadau gorchestol, and in SOLOMON'S SONG, viii. 6. The flame of God (Iah) or a most vehement flame in Welsh, fflam angherddol. See SALM lxxx, 10.
16. Dr. Davies says, that rhefedd is the same as rheufedd, riches; but erroneously, for rhefedd is formed of rhef, as teredd is of tew, and both signifying the same thing, viz. thickness.
17. Ogwymp, from gognympo; the Welsh tongue is remarkable for these compounds, of which there are two in this couplet that make a pretty opposition, one upon the verb, and the other upon the noun, and which are great helps in poetry.
18. Gallt, in North Wales, signifies a steep hill, and in South Wales, a coppice of wood; but in South Wales they throw off the G, and pronounce it allt, in the plural eltydd
    Af yn wyllt o fewn elltydd;
    I eiste' rhwng clustiau'r hydd,

    says Lewis Glyn Cothi, an officer under Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, when he was forced to wander from place to place.
19. Eryri, the range of mountains in Carnarvonshire, called in English Snowdon-hills, the highest of which, called, Y Wyddfa, is near a mile in perpendicular height.
20. Hoewal, the stream of the sea or a river; i.e., in that great day of confusion all these will be level.
21. Trwst, roaring, when spoken of the sea. See LUKE xxi. 24.
22. Aberoedd
23. Moroedd.
24. Bas, lle bas.
25. Noah, whose deluge was not to be compared to this.
26. Goleuadau, luminaries.
27. MATT. xxiv. 29. MARK xiii. 23, 24, 25. In this dark- ening of the sun's light, our Author hath made use of a very bold metaphor, that the sun would suffer in natural wrath an entire night by fainting away. Much after the same manner (he says) as the fit it was in when Christ was crucified
28. Our Author, in describing the moon's darkness, takes the opportunity of giving us both the names of the moon, lloer and lleuad, both seem to be of the same origin, which in the Celtic might possibly be lleu, the same with the latin lux; for we have several words framed from the same radix, lleuer, llewyrch, lleurwydd; goleu, goleuni, goleurwydd; lleueru, llewyrn; all signifying light, splendour, &ec.
29. This conveys a noble idea of that empty space in the heavens, between the stars and that great abyss into which, our Author says, they will fall.
30. Though eigion, at first sight, seems to be the same with the Latin oceanus, it is certain it is not borrowed from it, but formed from aig, the sea:—
    Ni thau fy mhen am Wenno,
    Mwy na'r aig ym min y ro.
31. The terrible gates of hell furnaces.
32. Pant is any hollow place; and here is used for the great hollow, or vacuum, between hell and the place it is to fall into.
33. Adfeiliog, ruinous.
34. Some critics would have the word gwal a corruption of the Latin vallum; but if Mons. Pezron's rule holds good, vallum is derived from the Celtic gwal, by adding um; as from gwin, vinum, &c.
35. Serfyll, likely to fall; from cwyddo, to fall; hence gogwyddo, tramgwyddo, &c.
36. Teulu uffern, furies, demons.
37. 'Dychryn, o dy and crynu, i.e., to quake exceedingly for fear. This crynu, repeated three times, adds a vast strength to the expression, especially as the idea is augmented in the last.
38. Satan, the prince of hell.
39. "A caldron, or pot. Satan is glad to get into some mean corner of hell to hide himself.
40. Uffern, properly, utter darkness, from mwg and du, q.d., mygddu. Hell is so called in some parts of Wales; so our Welsh Translators have rendered Job x. 22, and ISAIAH lix. 9.
41. Un o ddodenwau, neu ragenwau Duw, one of God's epithet, i.e., the Tamer.
42. Pydron ddynionach is a most beautiful expression in the mouth it comes from, and carries an idea with it not to be expressed in other language.
43. The charitable wish of the angel of a happy judgment puts him in a most lovely light.
44. There is in Homer (Illiad B.) a simile not unlike this; and in Virgil, Æu. lib. 6.
45. DAT. XX. 13.
46. Myrdd is a myriad, or ten thousand; but it is used here for an undetermined number. Myrddiwn, in the plural myrddiynau, is a million, or ten hundred thousand.
47. Llu is probably the ancient Celtic word from whence the Latin legio is derived, and the English legion, and in the plural is lluoedd, or lluon, vulgarly lion. Hence Caerllion ar Wysg, one of the cities of legions in Britain. The present, as well as the ancient meaning of the word llu, is an army of men (though here metaphorically used for a multitude), as appears by the book of Triades, "A llwyra lluydd a fu hwnw." Tr. Lluydd is the gatherer of an army, and Llewddyn Luyddawg is mentioned, in the same Triades, the name of a British Prince that had a vast army.
48. Torf, and y dorf, is the ancient Celtic word for a multitude, from whence the Latin turma was borrowed; the root is twrf, which signifies noise, and the sound of thunder; and in some parts of South Wales thunder is called tyrfau, the plural of twrf. From the Latin turma, the provincial Brit ins formed the word tyrfa, which is now the common word for a multitude, or great meeting of people; if it is not formed from the word tyrru, to gather together.
49. Ynad, is a Judge; and though Dr. Davies derives it, by transposition of letters, from the Chaldean and Hebrew, I am yet apt to think it takes its origin from hyn and hynaf, pl. hynafiaid, elders. So ynad might have been written at first hynad.
50. Gosgordd signifies guards, but our critics have not been able to give any derivation of the word. In my opinion the word is derived from gweis (the plural of gwas, a servant) and cordd, q.d., gweisgordd, which seems to be the old Celtic word for a guard, the same with the French garde, the Italian gardia, and the Spanish guarda.
51. DAT. xx. 11.
52. The common word is darllenir, and the author might have written here (Egorir darllenir llith), which would not have hurt the verse at all; but he chose to stick to the ancient primitive llen, to read, which, no doubt, is one of original Celtic roots, and from whence llyfr, a book. and the Latin liber might be derived; as is llen, doctrine, and darllain, to read.
53. Da, good.
54. Gwyn, white, is here metaphorically used for holy, clean, unspotted, and is a common epithet for God, when his sanctity is mentioned; as in Duw lwyd, which signifies grey, when his eternity is mentioned; as the Ancient of days.
55. The word Duw, God, in the old Celtic, seems to have been formed from 'da yw, that is, he is good.
56. MATT. XXV. 33, 34, &c.
57. Ion is one of the names of God, perhaps the same with Jehovah. The name of a man, Ioan, which is the Latin Johannes, is ignorantly pronounced Ion, which should be Io an, in two syllables, as appears from that verse of Iolo Goch:—
    Ail yw IO AN lân lonydd.
58. This is beautifully expressed by Homer (Illiad A. and elsewhere), though the fate is by him attributed to Jupiter, who is said to do it with a nod of his immortal head. And after him Virgil (Æn. lib. IX.), and elsewhere. But much more beautifully and majestically by the great. Creator himself, &c., I will shake the heavens (make or cause to tremble) the heavens, &c., ISAIAH xiii. 13. See HAG. ii. 6, which expression our Author has followed.
59. MATT. XXV. 41.
60. Diffaith, from di and ffaith, evil, vile, literally not good. Ffaith was an old British, or Celtic word for good; and tho' the Cambro—Britons have lost the primitive, they retain it in the compound; and the Irish (a branch of the Celtic) use the word maith to this day for good, which the French Britains pronounce MAT. Here I must observe, that Dr. Davies should have wrote diffaith, a desert, with an (e) diffaeth; hence diffaethwch, a wilderness, from di and ffaeth,i.e., uncultivated, or not mellow.
61. Epis. JUDE 13.
62. MAT. xxv. 34.
63. Trigfa, cartref,home.
64. I COR. ii. 9.
65. See a letter to the Cymmrodorion on the Prince of Wales' Motto, Ich Dien. The word here is used for eternal youth.
66. Cyffelyb, tebyg, like.
67. IOAN xiv. 3.
68. The Devil, this Diafl, as well as Diafol and Diafwl, are probably provincial words, framed from the Latin Diabolus. But the original Celtic name is Diawl, and which is compounded of the negative di and iawl, a prayer, request, or thanksgiving; a fit name for the enemy of mankind, i.e., void of prayer or thanks to God.
    Aed i Ddiawl dragwyddawl dro.—GR. GRYG.
    And though many nations use the same word for the same idea, yet it may be doubted whether there is one of them that can give it a rational derivation from its own language, as we do from the Celtic. Here it may not be amiss to inform persons who are not acquainted with the rigid rules of our Cambro—British Poetry, of the surprising fetters imposed upon it by the Ancients, for the security of their language, that it might not dance beyond its bounds. These strict rules, it is certain, have cramped our geniuses, though they have preserved our language in such a manner that it is almost impossible that it should change a single letter, while the works of the poets are read. As for example, in the word Diafl, from the nature of the verse before us:—
    Gan y Diafol ydd a'r aflan.

    The three last letters of the word must be the same with the three first in the word aflan; and as the word aflan cannot possibly alter because compounded of af and glan, i.e., un and clean; so you cannot alter a word that the Poets have used without altering the whole language. The kind of verses quoted here is the loosest of any of the four different kinds used in composing this kind of poem, though, one would think, this hath difficulties enough; yet the last verse save two,
    A melysed mawl Iesu.

    hath far greater difficulties, m ls in the word melysed, on one side of the accent must answer to m ls in the words mawl Iesu, on the other side; and all the vowels on each side the accent must differ, in order to make the sound various and musical.