TWENTY YEARS ( OF DRUID TRAINING)
1
It was like a rope of light
let down into the chaotic darkness.
Only later would we see
it was a deadly serpent
and the chains of enslavement.
But such is the nature of knowledge
and we shrugged, accepting all costs.
.
Nyt o vam a that
Pan y’m digonat
.
It was not from a mother and a father
That I was made.
.
2
One year we were held in complete silence.
No word spoken
but internal recitation of all the masters’ words.
Becoming each one, and their lilt,
moving into their expressions,
reclothed in passions,
Eyes opening in other worlds.
.
A’m creu a’m creat
O naw rith llafanat;
.
And my creation was created for me
From nine forms of consistency:
.
3
Another year we each were given
one word only, to unwrap.
To follow, to hunt to its uttermost,
to its bright birth,
In a name that has become ours alone.
A map of our journey,
a seal on our circumference.
.
O ffrwyth, o ffrwytheu,
O ffrwyth Duw dechreu;
.
From fruit, from fruits,
From God’s fruit in the beginning;
.
4
Once the words were learned
all the rhythms and the hidden wealth:
We could see how nothing existed
outside of those patterns of plaid.
No move, no colour, no conceit,
nothing that was not drawn
from that well of words.
And so we learnt to see around us,
in every hall, in every byre,
where each would walk
and where in each tale
they would place themselves.
And how with a word
it might be shifted
and how with a gesture
the plot might be moved on.
.
O vriallu a blodeu,
O vlawt gwyd a godeu,
.
From primroses and flowers,
From the blossom of trees and shrubs,
.
5
One year we were given
the gift of madness.
.
Prid o pridet
Pan y’m digonet,
.
From earth, from the sod
Was I made,
.
6
Another year we slept all the long days
and at night gathered around still pools
to learn the dance of stars, and their songs.
Our dreams would be strange then,
and our names, unpronounceable
.
O vlawt danat,
O dwfyr ton nawvet.
.
From nettle blossom
From the ninth wave’s water.
.
7
One year we would speak only lies,
until we knew that truth is itself a lie,
and that the tides beneath us
are drowning darknesses
and screaming passions.
.
A’m swynwys-i Vath
Kyn bum diameth.
.
Math created me
Before I was completed.
.
8
A year as birds
soaring and rising on thermals,
to find the fulcrum of the winds
and to twist the cloud rivers to rope
for sun or rain or storm.
To placate, to restore.
.
A’m swynwys-i Wytyon
Mawrut o brithron.
.
Gwydion fashioned me
Great enchantment wrought by a magic staff;
.
9
A year abiding by trees –
some would not return,
fertilising the world
with their eternal silences.
.
O Eurwys, o Euron,
O Euron, o Vodron;
.
By Eurwys, by Euron,
By Euron, by Modron;
.
10
Another, we hunted and slew all the gods,
taking their women and siring new progeny.
These we fed with our own blood and souls,
so that they would know us when we summoned them.
.
O pymp keluydon
Arthawon eil math –
Pan ymdygyaed.
.
By five enchanters
Of a kind like godparents –
Was I reared.
.
11
One year to placate and cajole poisons.
Those songs were enticing, sweet as death.
.
A’m swynwys-i wledic
Pan vei let loscedic.
.
A ruler fashioned me
When there would have been a burning extent.
.
12
Then we did all return to our own families
To serve one year, unrecognised, in their midst.
For many that was the final chain broken to the past.
Allegiance of blood once sweet, now rancid, old, bitter.
.
A’m swynwys sywyt
Sywydon kyn byt,
.
The wisdom of sages fashioned me
Before the world was made.
.
13
A year of folding secrets into the mundane;
Of speaking to the deep;
Of remaining human.
Learning that love and hate
Are the gravity that keeps us here.
.
Pan vei genhyf-y vot,
Pan vei vach veint byt.
.
When I had being,
When the extent of the world was still small.
.
14
A year polishing swords and mirrors
And placing the singing spells
Of vision and death within them.
.
Hard bard bud angnawt,
Yt uedaf ar wawt
A traetho tauawt.
.
A fair poet, of unusual gifts,
I control in song
That which the tongue utters.
.
15
The genealogies of the lost
And the equations of gods;
Their doorways, their doorkeepers.
The mysteries under the earth
Where the stars wander,
Passionate light on an endless river.
.
Gwaryeis yn llychwr,
Kysceis ym porffor.
.
I played in the light,
I slept wrapped in purple.
.
16
The transmutation of the body into smoke;
To see without eyes;
To move the shining streams.
.
Neu bum yn yscor
Gan Dylan Eil Mor,
.
I was in the citadel
With Dylan Son of the Sea,
.
17
To become free in chains;
To remember the first cauldron
And the journey from there.
Brightness remaining.
To give everything away,
Yet remain undiminished.
.
Yg kylchet ym perued
Rwg deulin teyrned.
.
My bed in the interior
Between the knees of kings.
.
18
To summon guards and guardians;
To curse the dreams of kings;
To know the stars’ positions in daylight;
To travel out on rays of light;
.
Yn deu wayw anchwant:
O Nef pan doethant.
.
My two keen spears:
From Heaven did they come.
.
19
To know one’s manner and time of death;
To move into other forms;
To prophesy and to escape from prophecy.
Transformation at the moment of death;
To remember every name and
The shape and hungers of souls.
.
Yn Annwfyn llifereint
Wrth urwydrin dybydant.
.
In the streams of Annwfn
They come ready for battle.
.
20
To return to simple words,
To return to silence;
To remember and forget,
To move freely without ripples.
Three drops spinning –
Their taste, the honey moment.
To know that all is song.
That all is one song, one river,
And to listen to the winds from the hills there,
From the rapids, from the shallows,
To leap upstream, to float downstream.
To inhabit the world that inhabits the wise.
.
Ef gwrith, ef datwrith,
Ef gwrith ieithoed.
.
He made, he remade,
He made languages.
.
Llachar y enw llawffer,
Much llywei nifer;
.
Radiant his name, strong his hand
Brilliantly did he direct a host;
.
Ysceinynt yn ufel
O dosas yn uchel.
.
They were scattering in sparks
From a drop in the heights.
—
The Welsh is taken from ‘Cad Godeu’, a long and mysterious poem attributed to Taliesin. It is not meant as a commentary on my verses, nor the other way round. But perhaps they both come from the same place and act as a counterpoint in time and space.
simonhlilly 