George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm translated into Welsh

Stephen Price

Mae’r Brawd Mawr yn eich Gwylio Chi… In good news for Welsh readers, works by one of the most popular and influential writers of the twentieth century, George Orwell, have been published in the Welsh language for the first time ever.

Welsh publishing house Melin Bapur was founded in 2024 and noted for publishing Welsh classics alongside translations into Welsh of well-known works of literature.

They have previously published Welsh versions of works as diverse as The Vagina Monologues, The Hobbit, Woyzeck, the poetry of holocaust victim Selma Merbaum and Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman.

However, their latest offerings are some of their most exciting yet – brand new translations of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, the first time either work, and indeed any work by George Orwell, has been published in Welsh.

“Universal appeal”

Adam Pearce, editor at Melin Bapur and translator of Mil Naw Wyth Deg Pedwar – the new Welsh edition of Nineteen Eighty Four – is a long-time admirer of Orwell’s works. “I first read Orwell’s works as a teenager and we identified him early on as a writer who would work well in Welsh.

“Whilst Orwell is in many respects a quintessentially English writer, his works are universal in their appeal and timeless in their relevance.”

Orwell’s classic allegory of corruption and the rise of totalitarianism, the new Welsh edition of Animal Farm has been translated by Anna Gruffydd, a native of the Llŷn Peninsula whose previously published translations into Welsh include Albert Camus’s La Peste and Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman.

She shared: “I wouldn’t normally change names when translating, but as Animal Farm is an allegory that could be set on any farm in the countryside of any country, and as I was using the Llŷn dialect in the translation, it felt right to have a set of animal names that would make sense for a farm in north-west Wales.

“I had a lot of fun deciding on suitably Welsh names for the animals! Foel yr Anfifeiliaid – foel means ‘bare hill’ and is a common element in farm names – felt like a more natural take on ‘Animal Farm’ than a more literal translation would have been.”

A different

Adam Pearce’s approach with Nineteen Eighty-Four was different. Pearce has previously translated English works like Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Time Machine by H. G. Wells into Welsh.

Adam shared: “The book is set in a geographically-specific London, so I resisted the temptation to do anything radical with the setting or the language.

“Orwell’s plain, straightforward English lends itself well to literary Welsh. One of the great things about translating any book though is the unintended creative consequences that arise from transposing one language into another. For example, we have a word in Welsh, Heniaith, old-language, that refers to Welsh – but provides a delightful contrast with a term like Newspeak, which I have translated as Newyddiaith (new-language).”

The real challenge was getting Newspeak itself to work in Welsh. “Welsh grammar is fundamentally different to English, so getting Newspeak to work and translating Orwell’s Principles of Newspeak essay was by far the hardest part of the book. I hope I have done it justice.

The books feature original cover illustrations by Massimo Carulli and Marcella Menna (Foel yr Anifeiliaid) and Welsh artist Rowynn Ellis (Mil Naw Wyth Deg Pedwar).

Both are available as paperbacks as part of Melin Bapur’s Clasuron Byd (World Classics) range, whilst Mil Nawr Wyth Deg Pedwar has also been published as a Hardback special premium edition with additional content in the form of an essay on the translation and a three-way Newspeak glossary, exclusive to the hardback edition. Both novels are also available as eBooks.

“More relevant than ever”

“George Orwell’s work seems more relevant than ever,” says Pearce, “in an age when people speak openly of ‘alternative facts’ – a phrase which drove Nineteen Eighty-Four to the top of bestseller lists.

“Whilst he didn’t predict things like the internet he would have recognised so much of what we’re seeing today: constant visibility via the internet, democratic backsliding all over the world, fake news and the open war on reality some seem intent on waging.”

Foel yr Anifeiliaid (£7.99) and Mil Naw Wyth Deg Pedwar (£11.99 paperback / £22.99 hardback) are available now from www.melinbapur.cymru or from all good Welsh bookshops.

The ebook versions can be obtained at a range of common ebook retailers.