It was a treeless world of weather-swept wilds in Snowdonia around my birth, bare as if giants had forever kept smoothing out every slanting slope of earth; and as I grew up, through boyhood's amazing years in our upland home among my own, those mountains' primal forms would press in, bracing me till their barrenness became my bone. And should something of me survive my end without completely vanishing away and be discovered by some heart-matched friend by chance near Snowdon in the dusky day, he'll see in it no image, no design, just long-drawn barrenness' bleak outline.
Moelni
Nid oedd ond llymder anial byd di-goed O gylch fy ngeni yn Eryri draw, Fel petai’r cewri wedi bod erioed Yn hir lyfnhau’r llechweddau ar bob llaw; A thros fy magu, drwy flynyddoedd syn Bachgendod yn ein cartref uchel ni, Ymwasgai henffurf y mynyddoedd hyn, Nes mynd o’u moelni i mewn i’m hanfod i. Ac os bydd peth o’m defnydd yn y byd Ar ôl yn rhywle heb ddiflannu’n llwyr, A’i gael gan gyfaill o gyffelyb fryd Ar siawns wrth odre’r Wyddfa ’mrig yr hwyr, Ni welir arno lun na chynllun chwaith, Dim ond amlinell lom y moelni maith
T. H. Parry Williams (1887–1975) was a renowned Welsh poet, scholar, and literary critic. Born in Wales, he became a prominent figure in Welsh literature, contributing significantly to the development of modern Welsh poetry. A key member of the Welsh literary renaissance, Parry Williams's works often explored themes of identity, landscape, and Welsh culture.
A. Z. Foreman is a poet and translator pursuing a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages at the Ohio State University. His work (both original compositions as well as translations from Arabic, French, Persian, Chinese, Latin, Occitan, Ukrainian, Russian, Hebrew, Welsh, Irish and Yiddish) has been (or is scheduled to be) featured in the Los Angeles Review, ANMLY, Asymptote, Lunch Ticket, Metamorphoses, the Penguin Book of Russian Poetry and elsewhere. But really he's most proud of having had his work featured in two people's tattoos, and if you have a dog he'd love to pet it.
