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"May", "May Month" or "The Month of May", known in Welsh as "Mis Mai", is a 14th-century Welsh poem in the form of a cywydd[1] by Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets.[2] The poem celebrates May, and specifically May Day, as the beginning of summer, the season in which the poet can make assignations to woo young ladies in the woods,[3][4] though since the woods of May are only one part of Creation his praise of them also involves praise of God.[5] It was included by Thomas Parry in his Oxford Book of Welsh Verse.[6]
Date
[edit]Dafydd's mention in the poem of "florins of the tree-tops" in connection with "fleur-de-lys riches" has been the basis of an attempt to date "May". Florins, featuring fleurs-de-lys in their design, were only minted in medieval England between January and August 1344, after which the mintage was discontinued. It was argued by D. Stephen Jones that this showed Dafydd's poem to have been written in or after 1344. Rachel Bromwich pointed out, however, that florins on which fleurs-de-lys also figured had been minted in Florence since 1252, and were so widely current across Europe that they have been called "the standard gold coin of the Middle Ages". References to florins in the works of Chaucer and other poets of his time are normally to the Italian coin. She therefore rejected the argument.[7] Dafydd Johnston has since advanced evidence in favour of Jones's theory, citing the line after Dafydd's mention of the florin, "He guarded me secure from treachery", as a possible oblique reference to Luke 4:30: "But he passing through the midst of them, went his way", a verse which was often used as a charm to ward off evil and which is inscribed in Latin on the obverse of the English florin.[4][8]
Recensions
[edit]Three different recensions of the poem exist, represented by Cardiff Central Library MS 4.330 (Hafod 26), a collection of most of Dafydd ap Gwilym's poems (along with some by other poets) made in the Conwy Valley about 1574 by the lexicographer Thomas Wiliems; Bodleian MS Welsh e 1, a collection copied some time between 1612 and 1623 by Ifan Siôn, Huw Machno and one unidentified other, probably for Owen Wynn of Gwydir; and National Library of Wales MS 5274D, an early 17th-century collection. There are not many differences between these three, but NLW MS 5274D includes two couplets not found in the others.[4][9][10]
Poetic technique
[edit]"May" displays an impressive command of verse technique. The second line of each rhyming couplet ends with the word Mai, thus maintaining a monorhyme through the entire 52-line poem.[11] This feat is paralleled in only one other poem by Dafydd,[12] though the Welsh court poets of a slightly earlier date used monorhyme in their awdlau.[13] The metrical rules of the cywydd form demand that the final -ai syllable of the rhyme-word be unstressed, the consequence of which is that in almost every case this word is a verb in the imperfect tense, giving the poem, according to one critic, "a sense of reflection and longing".[3] Dafydd further restricts his choices by starting each of the first eight lines with the letter D, yet the difficulties he sets himself result in no strain in the expression of his thoughts.[11] Dafydd makes much use of ambiguity in this poem, both in his vocabulary and in his syntax. One clear example of this is his repeated use of the word mwyn, meaning "gentle", tender", "noble", but also "riches", "wealth", "ore", which he uses to reinforce the money imagery of the poem.[14][4] Hazel leaves, for example, he describes as "florins of the tree-tops" – one of many usages in his poems of foreign words intended to jolt the reader by their unexpectedness.[15] Dafydd uses this money imagery to present the month of May as a wealthy and generous young lord,[11] whom he describes in terms borrowed from older Welsh praise-poetry addressed to the poets' noble patrons.[3]
Sources and analogues
[edit]Others
[edit]May personified as a patron of Nature in an Irish poem, "Cétamon", found in The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t5NrCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA341&dq=%22mis+mai%22+%22dafydd+ap+gwilym%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijvPHQkNuHAxW-QUEAHU0LCb0Q6AF6BAgNEAI#v=onepage&q=%22mis%20mai%22%20%22dafydd%20ap%20gwilym%22&f=false pp. 237-238
Early Welsh poetry and tradition. Bromwich "Selected" p. 20, Edwards pp. 81-82, 119-120, 155
Dafydd
[edit]Metaphors from currency. Poetry Wales p. 46, Bromwich "Aspects" p. 83
Personification. Bromwich "Aspects" pp. 34-35, Fulton p. 169, https://dafyddapgwilym.net/AnaServer?dafydd+74175+printPoem.anv+poem=32%20-%20Mis%20Mai lines 9-10
Describes abundance of birds. Thomas "Wrth" p. 10
Associates the idea of love with all the natural phenomena of summer. Fulton p. 168
Editions
[edit]- Williams
- Parry "Dafydd" pp. 267-268
- Parry "Oxford" pp. 58-60
- Johnston
Translations and paraphrases
[edit]- Bromwich "Selected" pp. 4, 6
- Clancy "Dafydd" pp. 111-112
- Ford pp. 265-267
- Gurney pp. 85-86
- Johnes p. 18
- Loomis pp. 89-90
- Loomis pp. 82-83
- Rhys p. 266
- Sims-Williams p. 541
- Thomas "Poems" pp. 51-52
- Watson pp. 153-154
Citations
[edit]- ^ Bromwich, Rachel (1986). Aspects of the Poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym: Collected Papers. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 76. ISBN 0708309054. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
- ^ Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Volume 5. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 1770. ISBN 1851094407. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
- ^ a b c Ford 1999, p. 265.
- ^ a b c d Johnston 2007.
- ^ https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MtnpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA79&dq=%22mis+mai%22+%22dafydd+ap+gwilym%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijvPHQkNuHAxW-QUEAHU0LCb0Q6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=%22mis%20mai%22%20%22dafydd%20ap%20gwilym%22&f=false p. 7
- ^ Parry 1962, pp. 58–60.
- ^ Bromwich 1982, pp. 4, 19.
- ^ Bromwich 1982, p. 4.
- ^ https://dafyddapgwilym.net/docs/The%20Manuscript%20Tradition.pdf pp. 12, 22-23
- ^ https://dafyddapgwilym.net/introduction/Rhestrllsgrau_ManuList_cym.php
- ^ a b c Thomas 2013, p. 53.
- ^ Bromwich 1982, p. 18.
- ^ Parry 1962, p. 543.
- ^ Bromwich 1982, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Bromwich 1982, pp. xix, 4.
References
[edit]- Bromwich, Rachel, ed. (1982). Dafydd ap Gwilym: A Selection of Poems. Llandysul: Gomer Press. ISBN 0850888158. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
- Ford, Patrick K., ed. (1999). The Celtic Poets: Songs and Tales from Early Ireland and Wales. Belmont, MA: Ford & Bailie. ISBN 9780926689053. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- Johnston, Dafydd (2007). "Nodiadau: 32 - Mis Mai". Dafydd ap Gwilym.net (in Welsh). Welsh Department, Swansea University/Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
- Parry, Thomas, ed. (1962). The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 56–58. ISBN 9780198121299. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
- Thomas, Gwyn (2013). Dafydd ap Gwilym: Y Gŵr Sydd yn Ei Gerddi (in Welsh). Bala: Cyhoeddiadau Barddas. ISBN 9781906396572. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
External links
[edit]
Welsh Wikisource has original text related to this article: Mis Mai- English translation by Patrick Sims-Williams
- Abridged English translation by Arthur James Johnes
Category:May Category:Poems about nature Category:Poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym