Friday finding

I do not know much about Dylan Thomas & only read/listened to Fern Hill earlier this week. I didn't even know that he was Welsh, at first. I was merely trying to find out more about the hangman who incarcerated his daughter on Fern Hill and then committed suicide when she escaped. I found out that much is being made of this poet in the UK because it would be his hundredth birthday...

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/dylanthomas/townhill#heading-welsh-language-version :

Benjamin Zephaniah, Writer and Dub-Poet:
Benjamin Zephaniah, Awdur a Bardd Dub:

I thought of this title before I wrote a word of this piece. Some time ago I just threw Dylan Thomas in with all the other dead, white, male poets that grown-ups tried to force us to like. There’s nothing wrong with being dead, male or white, the problem was that when you’re an angry young black kid, seeking justice, and trying to find art that expresses your struggles and your pain, you just get angrier when you’re told to go away and read a poem about daffodils. I have nothing against daffodils. Some of my best friends are daffodils, but it was about priorities. My contemporaries and me went off and created Dub-Poetry, a modern form of performance poetry, and we were happy not to be associated with those dead guys. 

Ond wedyn, fe ddigwyddodd dau beth i fi. Darllenodd ffrind y gerdd Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night i fi, a rhoi cefndir y gerdd. Wedyn, clywais berthynas i Dylan Thomas yn dweud yr arferai fod â sied ysgrifennu ac y byddai’n ei glywed yn aml yn darllen ei farddoniaeth yn uchel.

Felly, meddwn i, roedd Dylan Thomas yn ddyn go iawn, nid yn elitydd, roedd ganddo gariad ac angerdd. Dyna pam yr ysgrifennodd Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night ac roedd yn fardd perfformio. Roedd yn ysgrifennu â’r llais mewn golwg. Yn sicr nid yw’n fardd gwrywaidd, gwyn, marw. Mae’n fyw. Mae gen i brawf. Bu’n ysbrydoliaeth i fi.