As readers of poetry, we are very fortunate to have two outstanding recent anthologies, which between them illustrate the extent of this renaissance in Welsh writing. As equally impressive as they are, the two volumes start from altogether differing perspectives, demonstrating how broad the linguistic, and indeed the aesthetic range of excellence available to editors of Welsh poetry now is.
THE BLOODAXE BOOK OF MODERN WELSH POETRY, edited by Menna Elfyn and John Rowlands (Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books, 2003), is currently available in the UK and will be distributed in North America later this year. The subtitle of this volume is '20th-century Welsh-language poetry in translation', and it contains the work of ninety-seven poets whose work was composed originally in their native tongue. This rather bland statement conceals a message of considerable artistic and, at least at one time, political significance. As it so often does, the re-awakening of authors to the merits of their own poetic heritage coincides with a growth in political and national self-awareness, and both of these elements can be seen in this book's century of examples. The extraordinary complexities of Welsh versification-which simultaneously marshal and liberate the talented poet-are capable of producing beautiful and moving verbal artistry, and the team of expert translators behind this anthology have succeeded brilliantly in capturing this spirit of the original, without sacrificing the dignity of their subjects by creating a poor English substitute. From the 400+ pages that make up this volume, it would be foolish to select any one thing as representative of the whole; and yet it is a disservice not to quote at least something capable of showing a glimpse of the individualism, the sense of place, the often elegiac tone, and the sheer lyrical grace typical of the book. This is the third stanza of Bryan Martin Davies' poem 'Widow':
