Chloe Weihing
I’w gwr am ei churo
Dager drwy goler dy galon—ar osgo
I asgwrn dy ddwyfron;
Dy lin a dyr, dy law’n don,
A’th gleddau i’th goluddion.
—Gwerful Mechain
To her husband for beating her:
A dagger through your heart’s stone–on a slant
To reach your breast bone;
May your knees break, your hands’ skin atone
And may your strength go to your enemies to make you groan.
—Translated from Welsh by Chloe Weihing
To her husband for beating her:
A dagger through the centre of your heart—at an angle
Deep so that it reaches your breastbone;
May your knees break, may your hands wither, shrivel and shrink,
And may all your power go to your enemies.
—Translated from Welsh by Chloe Weihing
No Welsh
(an erasure poem from interview with Pat Jones)
No
No,
my great grandfather grew up in Wales, and he never passed on his language.
Welsh, in Wales
and Canada.
playing cards with “mates”
There were always bagpipes.
It was a very British household.
In Wales, he would sing songs in the mines.
There’s a recording somewhere,
we don’t know where.
My grandmother’s father never learned Welsh,
we don’t know why.
No,
her grandfather always spoke Welsh to whom he could.
My grandmother and her family left Edmonton, and so her grandparents, when she was nine,
she’d never really gotten to know them super well.
I’d like to learn Welsh now.
—Chloe Weihing
Translator’s Statement
“To Her Husband for Beating Her” is a poem written by Gwerful Mechain, a Welsh poet who lived between around 1460 and 1502. She is thought to have been the daughter of the well to do Hywel Fychan, putting her in the somewhat unique position (as a woman of her time) to do what she wished, without needing to work for a living or marry. What she wished to do with her life was write poetry. Although her independence as a female was a privilege, it was not uncommon for female poets from the Welsh medieval period to write by choice, contrary to popular belief that female poets were forced to write for a living (Gramich). There are many other things which separate her work from other female poets of the time.
Gwerful Mechain was a feminist poet, but not necessarily in the way one might expect. She wrote almost entirely “devotional and erotic works” (Gramich), speaking openly about her sexuality. This risk was easier for her in part because of her wealth, but it as a woman it was still a considerable risk that she consciously took. As well as this, “she engage[d] in poetic dialogues with her male contemporaries, using the same forms, metres, tropes, and vocabulary as they” (Gramich). Mechain’s poetry is somewhat unique because many feminist poets tried to set their poetry apart as “a marginal or isolated figure, participating in some putative female sub-culture” (Gramich). Mechain, however, identified her poetry with the same style as her male counterparts of the time. This gained her more popularity among her male peers, but it also showed readers that women were capable of thinking and speaking in the same way that men could. Overall, she was a very unique and self-possessed poet, who wrote first for herself and second for all women. “There is nothing ‘deodorized, depilated or submissive’ about Gwerful Mechain” (Gramich).
I chose to translate Mechain’s poem “To Her Husband for Beating Her” because–aside from it being one of the few appropriate choices–it also felt like one of the most outspoken and most feministic of her poems. It very clearly has a message of disapproval for abuse. As well as this, contrary to some of her other poems I was considering translating, it has a clear audience. Many of her poems seem to be for no one, or everyone. “To Her Husband for Beating Her” was clearly written for a certain group, to a certain group. It speaks for those who cannot: married women, most likely in a place of less privilege than Mechain, whose only perceived defense might be submission. It speaks to those who may not listen: abusive husbands, and any men in a position to stand up to their peers. Ultimately, I found it really inspiring that even in the 15th and 16th centuries there were women standing up for their rights.
Each of my two translations of Gwerful Mechain’s poem focused on preserving a certain aspect of the original. In the first translation, I chose to focus on the original rhyming scheme. When read in Welsh, the poem has a distinct “on” sound at the end of each stanza, with the exception of the first stanza, where the “on” happens before the em dash.
The original rhyming scheme:
I’w gwr am ei churo
Dager drwy goler dy galon—ar osgo
I asgwrn dy ddwyfron;
Dy lin a dyr, dy law’n don,
A’th gleddau i’th goluddion.
I believe Mechain chose to do this because (besides simply having a pleasing sound) it puts emphasis on the “heart’s stone,” which I believe means “the center of the heart”. I chose to keep the phrase “hearts stone” in my first translation for the sake of my rhyming scheme. In my second translation, I used the phrase “the center of your heart” as this was what I thought “hearts’ stone” meant literally and I believe it also sounds poetic. My second translation focuses on the raw anger against abusive men. I chose to use more vocabulary describing the demise of the abuser than the original poem, as I wanted to amplify Mechain’s voice and anger. This vocabulary included: “wither, shrivel, and shrink.” I tried to channel the anger I felt from Mechain in the literal translation and put that into my “mood” translation. I felt that this second translation more restored Mechain’s poem it to how it might have been in Welsh, rather than amplify or change it.
Writing these translations was an engaging experience. It brought me closer to my great grandparents and sparked a light in my interest for learning another language–possibly Welsh, but maybe another heritage language! I really enjoyed getting to meet with a translation mentor, hear Mechain’s poem read, and hear their interpretation of it. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that my poet was a feminist–a feminist before “feminism.” She didn’t write the poems to be anything, she wrote them for herself and other women. Some challenges I faced with the translations were keeping the lines around the same length or number of syllables (in order to keep rhythmic integrity, which I considered as one of the focus features) and communicating the meaning of the last line. Literally translated, it says: “and your weapons to your enemies.” This could be interpreted as the subject defeating any enemies, when really it means the opposite. It’s more of a wish for all the subject’s (the abuser’s) power to go to those who he hates. I found the translation process very empowering; I got to think about the many forms of feminism, aside from the label, and the fact that women have always had creative voices.
Interviewing my grandmother was very fun and interesting. I learned so much more about how and where my grandmother grew up. I knew that she’d lived in Canada, then left for the US when she was 19, but I never knew the details of her childhood. She didn’t know much about my grandfather’s experience speaking Welsh, but she did tell me about many details of his, her father’s, and her life that I’d never heard before. She told me she’d always wanted to learn Welsh but never had, as her family moved away from her grandparents when she was nine. After they moved, her exposure to Welsh was close to none as her father never learned Welsh from his father–we don’t know why. However, she did have a very old book of the Welsh alphabet which I was able to page through! My grandmother told me stories from her childhood memories with her grandfather and when she’d gotten to hear him speak Welsh. Mainly, she told me about how he (her grandfather, my great-great grandfather) would take her with him when he went to play cards with his “mates”, with whom he would always speak Welsh. He was born in Wales and lived there for many years. While living there, he worked as a miner. He also fought in World Wars I and II. Although he’d had an extremely hard life, it seems like he was a very kind person. Overall, I got to learn about the amazing lives that all my grandparents led.
When creating my erasure poem, I chose to use lines which reflected both the mystery of and the knowledge I have of my past. The repeating lines of “no” show the gaps in both my grandmother’s and my knowledge on the circumstances of her grandfather’s speaking Welsh. At the same time, I wanted to be transparent by using lines like “in Wales, he would sing songs in the mines” which reflected on the fact that we do actually know quite a bit about my great-great grandfather, just not about his speaking Welsh. In the future, I might choose to write more of the interview down just so I could have some more material to work with for my poem. Mostly, I wanted a poem that reflected the curiosity that learning your history brings. Instead of leaving me feeling satisfied with what I learned, this process just made me want to learn more about my ancestry. I hope to carry that curiosity into more learning with my family.
Works Cited
Mechain, Gwerful. (2018). The Works of Gwerful Mechain. Broadview Press. Katie Gramich.