The intro song - 'Wela i efo llygad bach i'

yes! I love her music. She’s so versatile. The folk stuff is magic. There’s also a much different Lleuwen in a contemporary jazz trio (a la ECM) album called Duw a Wyr on Bandcamp.

3 Likes

Just a quick question on grammar if that’s OK:
If I were to say wela’i gyda llygad bach i rhywbeth yn dechrau gyda chi (instead of efo), would that be really strange? Or is this a North/South thing? (I ask because I just finished a hangout with someone who has learned the North version and she was using efo a lot where I would have used gyda).

Also, I love this song!

3 Likes

Probably this… ‘gyda’ sounds very odd there to me, because it’s such a formulaic phrase, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if that felt the other way round to @Iestyn…? :slight_smile:

2 Likes

“Mi wela i efo llygad bach i rywbeth yn dechrau efo” reminds me of “I spy” - Rightly or wrongly this is the wording I’m now used to for “I spy” - “dw i’n gweld gyda’n llygad bach i rywbeth sy’n dechre gyda”. It’s a different tense of Gweld, but similar overall meaning?

2 Likes

Mi wela i and dwi’n gweld are equivalent. The former uses the short form present tense, which is seldom heard in speech (although it is used for the short form future, but that’s another discussion entirely). So, since song writing is both a musical and literary pursuit, Lleuwen has decided naturally to use the literary mi wela i form.

9 Likes

Thanks - well I’ve learned some literary Welsh today then - not something I really know very much about, which is why I thought it was different.

2 Likes

Thanks for that - You must have been reading my mind 'cos I’ve been trying to work some of it out and was going to write and ask about it. Diolch.

1 Like

Thanks for all the replies. That really helps.

2 Likes

Diolch, dw i’n joio gwrando ar y gân hon. Great end to a really testing week :+1:t2:

1 Like

Ooh, I just came across ‘i fyw y llygaid’ in Llyfr Glas Nebo, and I thought it must mean looking someone right in the eye. Thanks for the confirmation.

My mum used to say “cannwyll fy llygaid” to me. Always made me tear up. Beautiful image.

4 Likes

Diolch, mae’n da iawn gwrando y stori. Hofen i dysgu y canu (song?), maen diddoral!

1 Like

A very warm welcome to the forum, @allthelakes :slight_smile:

We tend to use English on the forum, unexpectedly enough, so that all our learners feel part of all the conversations (although we do have one thread for practising written Welsh: Be' 'dach chi'n gwneud rwan? A phethau arall yn Gymraeg - A topic to practice Welsh, open to all!) :slight_smile:

Sometimes we say that if we are looking straight into someone’s eyes, which would be the same as looking directly into the center of their eye, then we are looking into the person’s soul or essence. I’m guessing that if these two are speaking volumes with their eyes only, they are looking at more than the superficial. This is my singer’s two cents worth.

2 Likes

Brilliant! Tried to translate it before reading the notes and got loads more than i expected…love the notes at the bottom…diolch!

1 Like

Thank you for this - by week 5 I’ve got as far as spotting “something” and “starting” and “with you” but hadn’t managed to put them all together, so it’s ‘clicked’ now.

I heard it played on Radio Cymru the other day, and my poor brain started to prepare itself for a challenge!

7 Likes

Brilliant. Diolch yn fawr. There’s something about using song to create a flow to absorb/recall lyrics. The music was really engaging and the translations were really helpful.
Malcolm

1 Like

I told Lleuwen that learners everywhere flinch in a kind of happy/painful recognition whenever that song gets airtime - I think she enjoyed the thought… :wink:

9 Likes

I occasionally entertain the thought that if I ever heard the full song were played, I’d automatically flinch or be totally thrown off at that one part, because I’ve come to associate the sound with 40 minutes of pain learning.

4 Likes

Even better for me:
I did almost all Level 1 while on holiday at the seaside in the summer. Every time I hear that song I instantly feel relaxed. And the warm sun, a gentle breeze, the sand and the waves…it’s awesome! :sunglasses: :sunny:

And, of course, that’s also all automatically linked to how I feel about learning Welsh language: the exact opposite of boredom, stress and anxiety that I link to school (and consequently the other languages I 've learnt before) :grinning:

p.s. one more reason why SSiW works better than any other method for me. :wink:

5 Likes

Oh, fair play, that’s rather lovely… :slight_smile: :heart:

2 Likes