Hi everyone,
I am a very elementary learner of Welsh, but know many other languages, and I have
always found bilingual readers very useful, as long as the source text is on the same page or the opposite page from the target text. This saves you having to constantly look words up in the dictionary and struggle with grammatical constructions that you are not yet familiar with.
Does anyone know if these exist in Welsh please? If not, perhaps someone could think
about writing one. know, for example, that they do NOT exist for Icelandic, but there are many of them for Turkish and also for Spanish.
They often range from fairy-tales and short stories to pieces for children or articles from newspapers.
Tim
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Shwmae, Tim. There are definitely many titles available in Welsh and English, including the Harry Potter series. I have a book of short stories with parallel text, also.
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Hi Karla,
thanks for the reply. Perhaps I should have made it more clear that I meant texts printed in the same publication, on the same page, like dual columns, not books available in translation, which you could compare by having two books on the go.
Do you have the publisher of your short stories book please?
Tim
I have a handful of these sorts of things that I have picked up at various visitor attractions around Wales. They are published by Gomer in the ‘Cip ar Gymru’ series. See:
http://www.gomer.co.uk/index.php/catalogsearch/result/?q=cyfres+"cip+ar+gymru"
They aren’t much more than pamphlets (about 30 pages long) but nicely produced, with lots of pictures, and with the Welsh and English either side by side on the same page or on facing pages.
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As people have said, there aren’t many, but two I did find were:
“Y Lôn Wen” - “The White Lane” by Kate Roberts, translated by Gillian Clarke, Gomer, 2009
and
“Si Hel Lwli” - “Twilight Song” by Angharad Tomos, translated by Elin ap Hywel, Gomer, 2004.
I wouldn’t describe either as particularly suitable for beginner readers, however.
What I found worked best for me were books written specifically for adult learners in the Nofelau Nawr series. They are short, probably have somewhat simplified vocabulary, and contain some vocabulary as footnotes on most pages, but they don’t give every “difficult” word, so you have the chance to work out meanings from context, or if all else fails, look them up. 
Unfortunately, the series is not that large, and I couldn’t find all of them, but I have about half a dozen I think, and I liked them all.
Some people recommend the “Stori Sydyn” series.
Another approach (as an alternative to parallel texts) is to find separate translations. With some detective work on Amazon, one can sometimes find the same book in both English and Welsh. Unfortunately, the ones I bought that way turned out not to be very good; however, I haven’t totally given up on that idea. With luck more translations may become available. Although there may be a reluctance on the part of some authors to let their books be translated into English.
@CelticBiker Croeso! Great question! I’ll be interested to look into the responses in this thread.
In the SSiW Eisteddfod we just had, someone did a book review on a bilingual book about promoting Welsh language and culture. It’s here:
These next aren’t exactly what you are looking for, but maybe they would be of interest anyway, to you or someone else. They are short pamphlets about heroes and heroines of Wales that are published in Welsh and in English. They are separate pamphlets, not bilingual on the same page, but would be easy to compare. They are put out for learners by the Welsh government (Cadw) and are free to download.
Welsh versions
English versions
Pob lwc!
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Unfortunately I don’t, because now I’ve misplaced it. Only realised this as I was going through my stuff to try and get the publisher for you…oh well. My own fault, I suppose, for not keeping better track of my things! 
Lots of kids books do which I find very helpful - but I realise most people are more advanced/ more sophisticated than me!
This isn’t quite what you’re asking for, but the website https://bliubliu.com/en/ does a very clever job of providing translation of online Welsh texts, using google translate so you can quickly find the meaning of words you don’t know. I know that google translate is not our friend, but I found that bliubliu gave my reading an enormous boost - especially when you upload Welsh language kindle books into it.
Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I just came on this one by chance:
http://www.gomer.co.uk/index.php/books-for-adults/fiction-for-welsh-learners/ffenestri.html
“Ffenestri” by Lois Arnold. It is a bilingual collection of stories and poems.
"Details
Dyma storïau a cherddi lliwgar (colourful) i ddysgwyr lefelau Mynediad, Sylfaen a Chanolradd. Mae llawer ohonyn nhw (many of them) yn ddoniol (funny), rhai yn drist (sad), ond mae’r cyfan (everything) yn addas (appropriate) i ddysgwyr. Ar bob tudalen mae geirfa (glossary) i helpu gyda geiriau newydd.
Gyda Ffenestri mae dysgu Cymraeg yn llawer o hwyl. Rhowch gynnig arni (give it a go!)"
This is in the Gomer category of “Fiction for Welsh Learners”, which includes these:
http://www.gomer.co.uk/index.php/books-for-adults/fiction-for-welsh-learners.html
(the rest are not blingual, unfortunately for the OP, but might still be of interest).
The series “Cyfres Cam At Y Cewri:” (Step to the Giants" looks fairly interesting. Simplified versions of classic books (not sure if they are all novels). I notice there are some cheap 2nd hand ones on Abebooks (and maybe elsewhere).
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I’m sure I must have searched on Gwales before and not found much, but anyway, if one uses their advanced search and chooses “Bilingual and Other Books for Adults” and/or “Bilingual and Other Books for Children”, quite a few do come up. I’ve only looked at the adults ones so far.
Seems to be mostly non-fiction and a lot of touristy type stuff, but there may be something of interest.
One I noticed was about the Gwendraeth area, which I seem to remember people talking about on here a while back. Another is the story of Saunders Lewis, which should be of interest to lovers of the Welsh language.
Quite a mixed bag really, but perhaps worth a look if bilingual texts are what you want.
I’ve just been to the library to get out some Welsh books, and the edition of ‘Si Hei Lwli’ by Angharad Tomos that I picked off the shelf is bilingual - Welsh on the left and English on the right. It is published by Gomer also.
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