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

Nailed it! Very interesting to hear that you got to it on Challenge 17, I would have expected it possibly to take a little longer… :star2:

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I’ve been supplementing with other sources!
I sort of knew ‘wela’ was ‘gweld’ anyway from school Welsh and I knew llygaid was eye because I sing Myfanwy to my little boy and I read a translation of that a while back.
As soon as I grasped that ‘efo’ is with (never heard that before, being full on hwntw) the bit that says ‘rhwybeth yn dechrau efo (gyda) chi’ just made sense to me. That’s definitely come from SSiW though, the familiarity with the spoken patterns and everyday words like rhwybeth and dechrau.

Edit: That ‘spoken’ familiarity has been a real game changer for me.
I’d been pottering away with Duolingo for a while, and I still find that useful in terms of traditional ‘vocab’ teaching (cat, dog, shirt, shoes, etc) but it’s only through the revelation of SSiW that I suddenly experienced this feeling of being able to sometimes ‘think’ conversationally in Welsh.

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Delighted to hear that, and well done you - all your hard work clearly starting to pay off :slight_smile:

Great listening to it through head phones, didn’t realise how good a song it is, but still trying to get Coffi du out of my head lol

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Loosely music related, has anyone managed to get through level 1 challenge 21 without breaking out into a rendition of the clapping song? I’m lost in an ear worm after ‘my mother told me’ and I haven’t a clue what the Cymraeg is after that!
:slight_smile:

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My first lessons in Welsh pronunciation came from a wonderfully clear rendering of Myfanwy sung by. Bryn Terfel. Unforgettable.

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mae gen ti ddiddordebau wahanol yn cerddoriaeth, James. Da iawn. Dw i 'di dilyn ti

OK, so there’s a short form present tense? Arrghghgh! Also, why would she sing this to someone in the formal ‘chi’? Confused! Love the song though.

Yes, there’s a short form present/future, but don’t worry about it - just like the short form past, once you recognise it it’s easier to get a handle on it!

Actually she’s not using the formal ‘chi’ - she’s using “chdi” which is a northern colloquial form of ‘ti’ :slight_smile:

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Isn’t this more a question of poetic license, and the answer is in the previous line “reflection”, she sees in the persons eyes a reflection of what she feels herself? Can’t always translate word for word, Welsh especially. As my college teacher said Welsh is a descriptive language :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Nice song!

Where is the ‘my’ in my little eye? I would expect to see a ‘fy’ there before llygad…

@siaronjames, diolch!

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The ‘my’ here is the ‘i’ after ‘bach’. Yes, you’re right, you’d expect to hear the ‘my’ pronoun ‘fy’, but the possessive pronouns actually come as pairs of words:
fy xxxx i
dy xxxx ti
ei xxxx fe/fo/hi
ein xxxx ni
eich xxxx chi
eu xxxx nhw
But in speech (and particularly in song or poetry when things have to scan and rhyme :wink: ), one or other of the pairings is often left out - so for ‘my’, you could have fy llygad bach i or fy llygad bach or llygad bach i, and they’re all perfectly valid. Just don’t leave them both out at the same time !

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Brilliant!!! There’s me thinking she was saying “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…”
And what a great singer!!!

Really enjoyed this great voice great bass nice to know what the words mean properly I’d picked out bits and bats had slightly the wrong end of the stick. On looking right into the centre of their eye, maybe looking into their soul? M

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I’m onto challenge 17 and so I’ve switched my daily morning car listen from radio 2 to BBC Radio Cymru and this was the second song playing. I thought hang on, I recognise that song :blush: so pleased I found this thread to understand the meaning of the lyrics. Thank you

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thanks - I’d always wondered what the song is.
I worked out that she is singing about starting something, but I thought that she was singing about starting SSiW!

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'O, tania fatshan - mi wela i rywun yma tu allan i’r dafarn, yn tanio matshan…
O, sgen ti dân? Mae’r nos yn ddu a dwi 'di colli fy ffordd yn lân - sgen ti dân?

Ti’n sbio arna i, i weld os ydw i yn sbio arnach chdi yn sbio arna i a fedra i ddim gwadu…
Sgwrs hir, heb eiriau, siarad cyfrolau mewn eiliada…
Mi wela i efo llygad bach i rywbeth yn dechrau efo chdi…

O, adlewyrchiad… yma yn fflama cannwyll y llygad… adlewyrchiad…
O, gobaith gwych… syllu yn syn i fyw y llygaid drych… gobaith gwych…

Ti’n sbio arna i, i weld os ydw i yn sbio arnach chdi yn sbio arna i a fedra i ddim gwadu…
Sgwrs hir, heb eiriau, siarad cyfrolau mewn eiliada…
Mi wela i efo llygad bach i rywbeth yn dechrau efo chdi…
Mi wela i efo llygad bach i rywbeth yn dechrau efo chdi…’

aka

O, light a match - I see someone here outside the pub, lighting a match…
O, have you got a light? The night is dark and I’ve lost my way completely… have you got a light?

You’re looking at me to see if I’m looking at you looking at me and I can’t deny…
A long conversation, without words, speaking volumes in moments…
I see with my little eye something beginning with you…

O, a reflection… here in the flames of the candle of the eye… a reflection…
O, wonderful hope… staring in surprise at the quick of the mirror’s eyes… wonderful hope…

Found this on t’internet but I think in the version on SSiW from a live performance at an Eisteddfod (I believe) the “O, adlewyrchiad… yma yn fflama cannwyll y llygad” dooesnt’ sound exactly right. Might have been from the studio recording which is slightly different and a bit more folky.

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