Mike Jenkins - Welsh Poet & Author
  • Mike's Blog
  • New Book!
  • About Mike
  • Contact
  • What's the point?
  • The Climbing Tree
  • The Fugitive Three
  • Publications
  • Red Poets

THE LEARNING MARATHON

4/17/2011

0 Comments

 
   It's a marathon, but not the London running variety. Learning Welsh seems to have been endless and on my gravestone will read -' Bachgen bach o ddosbarth Cymraeg erioed, erioed' ( to paraphrase Joseph Parry's epitaph ).   As soon as we settled back in Wales, myself and my wife began attending classes. She had studied it before and is a Gaelic-speaker and excellent linguist, so I was rapidly left in the slow lane (and I'm a non-driver!).

   Since then, I've attended lessons in Ysgol Santes Tudful and also the Scala snooker club in Merthyr, where the local Menter Iaith used to hold them. We moved from table to table trying to pot the mutations and often ending up pocketing our own whites with tied tongues!

   Here I had an excellent teacher Phil Meaker (a local Joiner) who had learnt himself and so understood all the problems involved. I even progressed (prematurely, I'd say) to the 'dros y bont' class, but we tended to focus on comprehension, when what I needed was lots of conversation.

   More than a decade ago I was taught by Rob Hughes, now of Bedlinog, the best of all my Welsh teachers. Rob insisted on speaking Welsh all the time, which was the right tactics and had a real knack at making you feel confident. It was no surprise that he went on to become 'Dysgwr y Flwyddyn' a few years back and to head the Welsh dept. at Tredegar Comp.  Sometimes I meet him after Bluebirds' games and we have a chat (like me, he's a fanatic). Rob came from a Welsh family who lived in Reading and when I met him spoke English in a Reading accent and Welsh in a Gog one ( due to his teachers' influences). Now he speaks both in a Valleys one!

   For the 9 years I taught in Cardiff I stopped attending lessons, as I was too busy. I lapsed into a listener at the many Urdd Eisteddfodau we went to.

   When I took early retirement last year, I vowed to return to this marathon with a clear focus. I have yet to 'hit the wall', though writing any extended pieces certainly seems like high wooden fences.

    I've begun to gain some 'hyder' in speaking and enjoy reading the learners' magazines 'Acen' and 'Lingo' and watching certain programmes on S4C such as Bandit and Pethe.

    My weekly lessons in Hirwaun are always stimulating and I have another fine teacher. There's also a great atmosphere , as the class have been together now for a year and a half. I'm sure they're sickened by my spoffy self saying ' Mae e'n hawdd iawn!'

   I feel that I'm running longer distances in terms of forming sentences, but can still trip and stumble on mutations. At times I wish I could mutate.........into a computerized dictionary!  At other times, I think I'd be better off actually doing running rather than extending its metaphors.

   However, I do enjoy reading poetry in Welsh (especially with a translation adjacent)  and I've begun to write some poetry in Welsh also. 'Lingo' will be publishing my poem 'Croesi' which is, appropriately, about learning the language. Writing haiku is challenging, as Welsh words all seem multisyllabic.

   The race has begun, but I've no idea where the finishing line is or how long it's going to take.I'm not in the least tired and take on quite a few 'paned o te' en route.

   The following poem is a tribute to the yellow poppy which has been adopted by Plaid Cymru as their emblem (though their logo resembles that of BP!). 'Y pabi melyn' has followed me from the shoreline near Nant Gwrtheyrn to the streets of my village, Heolgerrig. May 'yr iaith' be just as ubiquitous.

                                Y PABI MELYN
                             { for Rob Hughes}

Y pabi melyn grows in a crack
on our drive by ivy, moss and dandelion.

The first year it has come!
Our garden has to tend itself,

more tulips appear each Spring,
but now they're stripped stems.

I remember it at Nant Gwrtheyrn
(that village reclaimed for the language),

a tutor pointing out its wildness
on the climb from the stony beach.

Now it's a dish for the sun,
the stamen alert as aerials.

Y pabi melyn, Cymru's other flower :
may it thrive in street-crannies forever.

  

  

  

  

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.



    Archives

    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from johnharveypegg, Dai Lygad, joncandy, victoriapeckham, David Holt London, aeneastudio, fromthevalleys-, Metro Centric, andymag, David Bergin Photography, villunderlondon, @markheybo, joncandy, Martin Pettitt, Between the Shadows, joncandy, johnkell, olivia.barrie, villunderlondon, Lake Worth, MittenStatePhototog, frankieleon, robynejay, joncandy, mcaretaker, Thomas Leuthard, Knight Foundation, joncandy, Joybot, brownpau, Iburiedpaul, villunderlondon, amit_gaur, abegum, simonw92, beeveephoto, Aislinn Ritchie, Shannon Green Photography, joncandy, Nick J Webb, Vish Menon, AberCJ, gcoldironjr2003, joncandy, World Can't Wait, jonl1973, Watt_Dabney, petejam70, Kerndav, MJ Klaver, joncandy, Daquella manera, spratt504, joncandy, ashleigh290, Glyn Lowe Photoworks., afanatochka, r.nial.bradshaw, themendingnews, rikkis_refuge, Matthew Straubmuller, joncandy, onnola, final gather, funktionhouse, marioanima, joncandy, Dai Lygad, joncandy, Guttorm Flatabø, brittreints, garryknight, villunderlondon, wonker, Martin Pettitt, joncandy, tnarik, AJC1, simonw92, wardyboy400, joncandy, Bombardier, joncandy, Cargo Cult, joncandy, joncandy, SeanOConnor2010, Feral78, comedy_nose, Abode of Chaos, mkairishstudies, joncandy, avail, Jörg Weingrill, Gwydion M. Williams, Leshaines123, KiltBear, eisenbahner, Capt' Gorgeous, Francis Storr, New Chemical History, Matthew Black, jc.winkler, Gwenael Kere, Karen Roe