Nicholas Jones16 Sep 2004

I've never read much Hedd Wyn. If anything, the title of my poem could refer to Glyn Jones' novel 'Times Like These'. What I have read is in translation; my grasp of Welsh isn't strong enough (yet, I am still learning) to understand poetry, or, rather, I feel I can understand the words only on a very literal level without picking up the cultural baggage they carry.

Gillian Clarke renders the final verse of 'Rhyfel' as

Like old songs they have left behind,
We have hanged our harps on the trees again.
The blood of boys is on the wind,
Their blood is mingled with the rain.

Which I suppose is a fairly good description of what appears to be the current state of the world.