Description:
Fifty Welsh poets speak for and with the rivers of Wales. Every poem translated Welsh-English, English- Welsh.
Brief description: Sian Northey is a freelance author, poet, translator and editor. She is one of two guest editors for our Welsh/English bilingual poetry anthology A470, and has a poem in in Menopause: The Anthology. Sian usually writes in and translates into Welsh, so a poem in English is a departure.Sian Northey is a freelance author, poet and translator. A first language Welsh speaker, she writes in Welsh/Cymraeg and mainly translates from English to Welsh, and occasionally in the other direction.A translation (Susan Walton) of Sian's novel Yn y Tŷ Hwn was published under the title This House this year. Currently she is working on a novel where a small group of women face the closure of their chapel in rural Wales as the congregation dwindles.Sian has, through Literature Across Frontiers, visited Kerala as a member of a translation poetry workshop and until recently she was Poet in Residence on an 18-month-long heritage project run by the Church in Wales. She also spent a week last year as Writer in Residence on Bardsey/Ynys Enlli.After co-editing Arachne's first bilingual anthology, A470: Poems for the Road/Cerddi'r Ffordd, with Ness Owen, she is very enjoyed working with her again on Afonydd.Mae Sian Northey yn awdur, bardd a chyfieithydd llawrydd. Cymraeg yw ei hiaith gyntaf, mae'n ysgrifennu yn Gymraeg ac ar y cyfan yn cyfieithu o'r Saesneg i'r Gymraeg, ac weithiau fel arall. Yn gynharach eleni cyhoeddwyd cyfieithiad (gan Sue Walton) o nofel Sian, Yn y Tŷ Hwn. Ar hyn o bryd mae ar ganol ysgrifennu nofel am griw bychan o fenywod yn wynebu gweld eu capel gwledig yn cau wrth i'r aelodau fynd yn hŷn ac yn llai mewn nifer. Mae Sian, gyda chymorth Llenyddiaeth ar Draws Ffiniau, wedi ymweld â Kerala fel aelod o weithdy cyfieithu barddoniaeth a than yn ddiweddar roedd yn Fardd Preswyl ar brosiect treftadaeth 18 mis gan yr Eglwys yng Nghymru. Llynedd yn ogystal bu'n Awdur Preswyl am wythnos yn Ynys Enlli. Ar ôl cyd-olygu blodeugerdd ddwyieithog gyntaf Arachne, A470: Poems for the Road/Cerddi'r Ffordd gyda Ness Owen mae'n edrych ymlaen yn fawr i weithio efo hi eto ar Afonydd.
Review Quotes:
What a breath-taking rolling watery wonderful ride of a book! With a chorus of diverse voices, it honours these vital lifelines in all their fragility and strength, urging a deeper sense of urgency for their protection as concerns over our polluted waterways intensify. A powerful tribute and a call to action.
Deborah Alma, Founder, Poetry Pharmacy
Ranging from moving personal naturalistic recollections of a local river (never, never leave the town) to metaphorical verses of water and symbolic representations of rivers and their meaning for us (water completes us) or (ripples of my own story) one feels inspired and empowered.
A much needed plea for us to wake up and appreciate these natural wonders that we have taken for granted and ignored and polluted for decades - Should be sent to every water company in the UK for its 'not for profit' board members to read.
A beautiful bilingual collection from the poetic sons and daughters of Rachel Carson and John Muir that makes you want to go and sit by your own river and tell it you will protect it. Gobaith. Ymlaen. Patrick Jones
Mae'r gyfrol hon ei hun fel afon: o'i tharddle mewn mawl i'r dinodedd dienw, mae weithiau'n lli carlamus a thro arall yn oedi'n mewn pyllau llonydd; yn gartref i lawer llais rhwng mynydd a môr, a'r holl obeithion a phryderon a gariwn gyda ni at gyrff o ddŵr. Iestyn Tyne
An anthology of poems about rivers is the obvious eco follow on to Northey and Owen's last outing together, which was to collect verse about the A470, Wales's main trunk road. And it's terrific too - if you didn't know how wilily-wet, watercourse-beset, rill-rich, brook-bombarded, nant-naturalised and aber-anaesthetised Wales was, then start here. Peter Finch
Peth gwerthfawr a chalonogol yw gweld bod nentydd ac afonydd Cymru'n rhedeg trwy ddychymyg a meddyliau ein beirdd. Mae'r gyfrol hon yn rhodd bwysig i bawb sy'n poeni am lendid ac iechyd ein dyfroedd dwyieithog. Gwyneth Lewis
No two rivers are the same. From the least bog-trickle to the two-hundred-mile embrace of Hafren/Severn, each has its own voice, often many voices, each specific to the place it flows through and reflects. This is the insight that makes for such a rich and varied anthology. More than just a showcase for the range and reach of Welsh writing in two equal languages, this is a water-map that catches the whole of Wales, its history and landscapes, its diversity and fine connections, in its glittering net.
Philip Gross, author of A Fold in the River, Troeon/Turnings and The Water Table
Fel yr afonydd y maen nhw'n eu portreadu, mae cerddi'r gyfrol hon ar dro yn chwerthin ac yn tincial, yn rhuo ac yn disgleirio. Wrth ddilyn eu cwrs o'u tarddiad yn nychymyg y beirdd i fôr y dudalen, yn raddol, ymdroellog, daw Cymru yn ei holl amrywiaeth i'r fei. Llŷr Gwyn Lewis
Immerse yourself in this river of rivers, its narratives and lyric moments. All our griefs and joys course through it.
Paul Henry