Cynan Gwlad Beirdd

-888

-888

-

-888

-888

-888

-888

-When I am old and famous

-With money in my purse

-And all my critics silenced

-For better or for worse.

-I'll buy me a lonely cottage

-And at its door shall be

-The rocks of Aberdaron

-And the wild waves of the sea.

-And the wild waves of the sea.

-When you think of Cynan,

-what do you think?

-Our usual image of him

-is as Archdruid...

-..a knight of the realm

-and an establishment figure.

-Don't you see him as a rebel?

-He alludes to that

-in his poem about Aberdaron.

-He also mentions a lonely cottage.

-It stands above the rocks.

-That's where I'd like to be.

-I'll buy me a lonely cottage

-Here are the rocks of Aberdaron.

-Here too is the lonely cottage...

-..where Cynan wished to live

-in his old age.

-He wanted to hear the waves

-awakening his rebellious streak.

-Until my heart recaptures

-Its rebel song of yore.

-Albert Evans-Jones was born

-in Pwllheli in 1895.

-His parents kept a shop,

-Liverpool House.

-It was a grocer's shop,

-then a baker's shop and then a cafe.

-Behind the shop,

-next to the oven...

-..Cynan's father

-would train children to recite.

-He went to Bangor University.

-He joined the ambulance corps

-in the First World War...

-..before becoming an army chaplain.

-He witnessed

-military action in Macedonia.

-While in Macedonia,

-located between Serbia and Greece...

-..with the bullets flying,

-he had only a single thought.

-He wanted to return here,

-to the Lleyn countryside.

-A favourite place was Uwchmynydd,

-Cynan's end of the world.

-Here, he'd see that each day

-was as still as a Sunday afternoon.

-Turning through Uwchmynydd

-And its narrow little lanes

-Where time, the whole time,

-is like a Sunday afternoon.

-In his early life,

-when he was emerging as a poet...

-..Cynan was regarded as a rebel.

-He was viewed as an antagonist.

-He would express his views

-in plain and unambiguous terms.

-He shared a real bond of faith

-with those who had endured the war.

-Many had not survived,

-and this moved him deeply.

-He was their staunch and loyal ally.

-He'd tell their story in as real

-and as correct a way as possible.

-I find it very sad indeed...

-..to tour around

-the little villages of Lleyn...

-..and seeing the memorials

-to those young lives...

-..that were squandered

-in the Great War...

-..by the stubbornness

-of politicians...

-..and by the mistakes

-of incompetent generals.

-His poem Mab Y Bwthyn

-rekindled poignant memories.

-Many Welshmen

-had fought in those dark trenches.

-Come now back to rural pasture

-To plough the furrow,

-as did your father.

-Come back again to seventh heaven

-The place

-where once you lived with Gwen.

-In this poem, he gives voice

-to many a soldier's conscience.

-He asks, son of the poor cottage,

-why did you kill your brother?

-The poem is entitled

-Mab Y Bwthyn - Son of the Cottage.

-It won him

-the Eisteddfod Crown in 1921.

-The language is incredibly simple.

-Consider his blunt description

-of the army.

-They made me into a killing machine.

-A killing machine.

-By 1922, he'd written Mab y Bwthyn.

-My goodness, it went down

-a storm everywhere in Wales.

-Everyone recited passages from it.

-People rushed to buy copies.

-Most of Wales knew it,

-and could recite parts of it.

-That had never happened

-with Eisteddfod poetry before.

-One of his most tender war poems

-is Hwiangerddi - Lullabies.

-It's a form of prayer in song.

-Peace is sought

-amid all the explosions.

-He illustrates it so vividly.

-He says that it calls for only

-a light breeze from Carn Fadryn.

-This would suffice

-to silence the roar of the guns.

-Lord, I beg you, let me sleep

-I've tossed and turned all night

-My soul's been racked by the torment

-Of explosions and by fright.

-How I long for a breeze to soothe me

-From Carn Fadryn far away

-With no sounds of guns that thunder

-Only the songs of a better day.

-Gentle, peaceful songs of childhood

-Rather plaintive in their charm

-Like the whisper of my loved one

-Sighing, smiling on my arm.

-Song of summer in its sandals

-Tripping through the fields of Lleyn

-And the songs of apple blossom

-Falling softly one by one.

-Song of Talcymerau's river

-Through the gorse bush murmurs

-Like the sound of night time prayer

-By the candles of silent stars.

-Songs of oceans breathing deeply

-In Abersoch just at dusk

-Songs that take me from this army

-Songs of lotus, songs of musk.

-How I long for a breeze to soothe me

-From Carn Fadryn far away

-With no sounds of guns that thunder

-Only the songs of a better day.

-After the war, he became minister

-of Jerusalem chapel, Penmaenmawr.

-He also adopted

-the bardic name Cynan.

-I have a theory

-about Albert Evans-Jones.

-He chose the bardic name Cynan...

-..because of the link

-with Gruffudd ap Cynan.

-He was King of Gwynedd

-and Wales in the 12th century.

-Appropriately, Gruffudd ap Cynan

-laid down new rules for poets.

-There's a parallel

-to be drawn, of course.

-As Archdruid, Cynan organized

-and modernized the Gorsedd of Bards.

-I believe that Gruffudd ap Cynan...

-..inspired Cynan

-when choosing a bardic name.

-He had many successes

-at the Eisteddfod.

-He won three Crowns and a Chair.

-He won the Crown

-in Bangor in 1931.

-His subject was Y Dyrfa - The Crowd.

-The poem was about a rugby match,

-Wales v England at Twickenham.

-It was ground-breaking.

-The thrills of the rugby field

-came to the Crowning ceremony.

-Nothing there seemed real

-Except the ball I held.

-Controversy surrounded

-his winning of the Chair.

-In the 1924 Pontypool Eisteddfod,

-some said that he'd broken the rules.

-He had employed metres

-that were different to the norm.

-Cynan wasn't the type to lose sleep

-because of the debate!

-In a lesser-known poem,

-entitled Y Nasaread...

-..Cynan emphasizes that Jesus

-was a man of flesh and blood.

-He loved to go out and about

-in the open air to preach...

-..whereas we are confined

-within the chapel's four walls.

-What he gained from the war

-was a perspective on life.

-He witnessed much suffering.

-He saw men

-battered by circumstances.

-After the war,

-I would have thought...

-..he returned as a tolerant

-and broad-minded person.

-He wasn't a saint or a puritan.

-A great culture shock awaited him

-when he became a minister.

-He felt that religion was being

-interpreted in a narrow-minded way.

-It was sanctimonious, intolerant.

-He conveys that type of religion...

-..and rebels against it

-in the poem Y Nasaread.

-I read that you took as your pulpit

-A hillside or rocky shore

-But we turn from sunshine to chapel

-And shut every window and door.

-Religion has become constricted.

-I read, my Lord, in the Bible

-How you turned Cana's water to wine

-But I hear that you're now teetotal

-And sour, banning all laughter.

-I read that you took as your pulpit

-A hillside or rocky shore

-But we turn from sunshine to chapel

-And shut every window and door.

-I read of your friendship

-with sinners

-Zacchaeus and Magdalene

-We sometimes elect him an elder

-But her, we're sure to condemn.

-I read of your challenge to lay down

-My Life for your Kingdom, my Lord

-Your chosen are still always asking

-Will my soul be saved by the world?

-Oh, Jesus who was from Nazareth

-If today you came back to earth

-Again you would be rejected

-As our eyes

-are still closed to your worth.

-.

-888

-888

-

-888

-Cynan's poetry wasn't his only

-contribution to the Eisteddfod.

-In no time, he switched from being

-a competitor to being Mr Gorsedd.

-On becoming Recorder in 1935,

-he began reforming the ceremonies.

-He wrote the words

-for the Chairing ceremony song.

-He also set up the Floral Dance.

-He created a colourful

-and memorable ceremony.

-The response to the changes

-must have been favourable.

-In 1950, he was made Archdruid.

-It happened again in 1963.

-He's the only one

-to have been Archdruid twice.

-We mainly associate him

-with the Eisteddfod...

-..but he was involved

-in many different fields.

-He was appointed

-by the Lord Chamberlain...

-..to be the censor

-of Welsh-language plays.

-He was also a playwright,

-actor and drama lecturer.

-There are amusing examples

-of him censoring things.

-Wil Sam wrote a play in the 1960s

-called Y Gadair Olwyn.

-In it, there was a line

-about Ann Griffiths being horny.

-On the copy of the script

-sent to the Lord Chamberlain...

-..Cynan's translation was

-that Ann Griffiths was "hot-assed"!

-That phrase had to go

-before the play could be performed.

-But when you see Llyn Traffwll

-Make your nest

-in Glan Dwr's garden

-It wasn't only the public arena

-that attracted him.

-He also loved to go fishing alone.

-When he asks the bird,

-the dear goldfinch...

-..to take a message

-from the war to Wales...

-..he says that he'd give the world...

-..for half an hour

-fishing in Traffwll...

-..far from the noise of the guns.

-Today, on the tranquil banks

-of Llyn Traffwll on Anglesey...

-..it's easy to understand why.

-He liked to go fishing.

-As a boy, he fished a lot

-in Pwllheli harbour.

-He was a very keen angler.

-A rod and line man.

-Sewin and salmon.

-He was a good angler.

-He obviously enjoyed

-the peace and quiet of the river.

-In contrast, a storm raged

-at the end of the 1960s.

-Wales was split into two camps.

-Those for the Investiture,

-and those against.

-Cynan was a prominent supporter

-of the Prince...

-..at the Investiture in Caernarfon

-and at the Eisteddfod in Flint.

-That year, he dropped the Mr...

-..and became a Sir.

-Sir Cynan Evans-Jones.

-The service of princes

-saves a language from injury.

-For many centuries...

-..no more princely service

-has been offered...

-..to the Welsh language

-than by your good self.

-Gerallt Lloyd Owen's poem

-described the Prince as a foreigner.

-That was the view

-of the younger generation.

-They were consciously

-nationalist in outlook.

-Gwynfor Evans had become

-the first Plaid Cymru MP in 1966.

-A very different Wales

-was emerging at that time.

-I believe that Cynan,

-possibly, was out of touch...

-..with the new, developing Wales.

-He was seen increasingly

-as a figure from a bygone Wales.

-That was a potted biography

-of Cynan, who died in 1970.

-He's buried at Llantysilio church

-on the banks of the Menai.

-He was a man at ease

-on the great public stage...

-..but also a man

-who longed to leave it all behind.

-It's evident that Cynan

-held a magnetic appeal.

-He had an aura about him.

-People were keen to see him,

-and to share his company.

-There's a story

-which reflects this rather well.

-It's a description

-by the actress Marged Esli.

-Her mother and aunts

-were arguing in a chapel...

-..about who was to serve

-tea and scones to Cynan.

-Marged Esli

-describes him well.

-A celeb with substance.

-In modern parlance,

-Cynan definitely had the X factor.

-When I am old and famous

-With money in my purse

-And all my critics silenced

-For better or for worse.

-I'll buy me a lonely cottage

-And at its door shall be

-The rocks of Aberdaron

-And the wild waves of the sea.

-When I am old and famous

-A respected pantaloon

-And my rebel heart lies placid

-At the rising of the moon

-I still may be a poet

-And you still may hope for me

-By the rocks of Aberdaron

-And the wild waves of the sea.

-When I am old and famous

-Conforming to the times

-My songs are nicely patterned

-To tinkling little rhymes

-I still may be a poet

-And you still may hope for me

-By the rocks of Aberdaron

-And the wild waves of the sea.

-For there I'll stand and listen

-To the stormwind at my door

-Until my heart recaptures

-Its rebel song of yore

-And I'll sing again with passion

-And all my songs shall be

-Of the rocks of Aberdaron

-And the wild waves of the sea.

-S4C Subtitles by Adnod Cyf.

-.