A poetic celebration of Wales’ relationship with France

Aneirin Karadog

As the sons of a Breton mother and a Welsh father, (with the villages of Kerlouan in north west Brittany and Neslon in the valleys of south Wales coming together when my parents met), it is fair to say that my brother, Hefin, and I had a different upbringing to most of our peers.

We were raised simultaneously with two mother tongues, as our mother, Kristina, spoke and still speaks Breton to us and our Father, Derec, raised us speaking Welsh.

Those are the languages we associate with them when we speak to them today. And when they met, they only had French in common, so it can still often become a literal lingua franca between us four.

But being bilingual or even multilingual is not in of itself an unusual thing when we look at the worldwide picture. It is generally accepted that 40% of the world is monolingual, and that speaking more than one language, therefore, is the norm.

‘Obsessed’

Being a first language speaker of two mother tongues that are minority languages, it is easy to forget this and for some to accuse speakers of a minority language of being obsessed with language and culture.

Cymraeg, as well as its sister-language, Brezhoneg (Breton) have enriched my life not only in giving me two different windows on the world, but also as doors through which I have been able to explore my identity, to culture, history, a common celebration of traditions and the unique traits that two groups of peoples share.

Being in the shadow of majority languages such as English and French have allowed me to share my love for my mother tongues and the cultural riches they carry with them with a wider world.

It also allows us as Welsh speakers to innovate and bring in influences from afar such as hip-hop, with which I have enjoyed experimenting and seeing how it can work in Welsh as well as English (in a previous life with Y Diwygiad and Genod Droog.)

Identity

Being invited to write a celebratory poem in four languages for Llywodraeth
Cymru (as part of the Year of Wales in France activity in 2023) was thus an unique opportunity to delve further into experimentation with form and language as well as manifesting through cynghanedd aspects of my identity.

It is said that cynghanedd itself is a language within a language. This unique form of strict meter poetry is one of the Welsh language’s gifts to the world, and just like Cymraeg, whether we speak it or not, whether we have learned the rules in order to express ourselves as poets fully in cynghanedd, it still belongs to all of us. It was a joy to play and experiment with using cynghanedd across Welsh, Breton, English and French.

Whether it is a successful experiment or not (cynghanedd works best in Welsh, and to a lesser degree in Breton due to cynghanedd’s evolution being akin to the wheel of Welsh gaining spokes of cynghanedd as it has turned over centuries.), it was certainly a powerful symbol of a show of unity that the Welsh Government has forged with Brittany and France.

As the children of Cymru will be able to enjoy a new translation into Cymraeg of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s seminal book ‘Le Petit Prince’, and as our First Minister, Eluned Morgan celebrates Dydd Gŵyl Dewi in Paris this year, and following the reaffirming of the Memorandum between Wales and Brittany (2004), there are many ties to celebrate and opportunities that will hopefully come our way, as new generations of talented people on both sides of the channel could benefit from the spirit of cohesion and practical ideas from working together.

Culture

This bridge building is a two way street and hopefully an opportunity for our cultural exports to go the other way as well. The success of author Manon Steffan Ros and her modern classic, Llyfr Glas Nebo, translated into many languages, including French, is a
great example.

My poem celebrates the marking of an official attempt at raprochement between
Wales and it’s much larger counterpart, France which garnered many events and
cultural and business opportunities in 2023.

Within France, Brittany stands as the only nation to boast a Celtic language on the European continent. Breton has suffered a severe decline in numbers of speakers over the last half century, and the presence of Cymraeg in the Celtic world as the strongest language in terms of its use across geographical communities as well as online communities can lend Breton a much needed boost as it strives to rekindle it’s presence in Brittany amongst its people.

The work that Llywodraeth Cymru is doing, as well as small but important groups like Cymdeithas Cymru- Llydaw (The Wales-Brittany Association) and many twinning projects between towns, villages and institutions, show that through our shared languages, our minority mother tongues as well as our access to worldwide languages such as English and French, we can build bridges and create an entente sans frontière, and raise a toast exclaiming ‘yec’hed mat’ and ‘iechyd da’!

Y Ceiliog, y Carlwm a’r Ddraig.

Mae Ffrainc yn galw, mon frère,
Teir baniel, ein tair baner
Yn cyhwfan o’r glannau
From our ‘tir’, y bur hoff bau,
Bro C’hall, Galles et l’Hexagone,
Hen bau’r iaith, braich y Brython,
Hen wledydd yn cofleidio,
On branche, now we’re bonding bro!

Mon cher, dans l’air il y a
L’élan des goélans gallois,
Ysbryd gŵyl ha spered gouel
Yn gariad hyd y gorwel.
Our laurels were in Lorient,
Oui! Une joie de vivre sur le vent,
Ein miwsig ar y meysydd
Yn dôn o Nantes i Gaerdydd
Et quelques celtic welcomes,
Dracht o Benderyn like drums
In our blood, allez les Bleus
Yn gorws ceiliog heureux.

Une mêlée yn ei miloedd,
Dynion y bêl hirgron, bloedd
Y sŵn wedi’r Marseillaise
Yn galw ar draws Gwales.

O Baris i’n Bae Euraid,
O fyd y bêl, haf di-baid
(hafaidd o aeaf hefyd)
Haf o flwyddyn ar ei hyd
A gafwyd, haf o gyfarch,

Très bon yw busnes trwy barch!
Bro Frañs a zo o tañsal
On dance les gars! C’est France-Galles!
Hon fu’n flwyddyn a hanner,
Mae Ffrainc yn galw, mon frère.