This is a commissioned poem I created to a friend’s request. She wanted an original piece of poetry to recuite at the ceremony celebrating the wedding of her close friends Gwenan and Steff.
Getting hitched in Sorrento
The wedding took place on the sunny Amalfi coast in Italy. After undertaking a whole host of commissions for wedding in Wales it was a relief to get out to explore new landscapes and sea breezes in this poem.
Having breathed some salty sea air and imagined the boats sailing contently below the jagged cliffs, I realised things weren’t that different to Wales after all. The reference to “hwyliau sidan” (silk sails) is a reference to an old Welsh verse:
Dacw long yn hwylio’n hwylus,
Heibio’r trwyn, ac at yr ynys;
Os fy nghariad i sydd ynddi,
Hwyliau sidan glas sydd arni.
Rough translation:
There beyond the headland sails
The ship towards the island;
If my love is on there on board
There are blue silk sails upon her.
Poem for Gwenan and Steff’s Wedding
This poem is written as a Welsh cywydd.
Oedwch: mae hwyliau sidan
yn y Med, a’r cychod mân
dan swyn y gwanwyn a’r gwynt
yn caru gwres y cerrynt.
Gwenwch islaw’r clogwyni;
dônt eto i’ch huno chi,
at aur yr haul yn eu tro
ar eu hynt i Sorrento.
Yn eich gwanwyn chi, Gwenan
a Steff, mor gynnes ei dân,
rhowch i Ela’r ha’ o hyd
a hafan o’r tes hefyd.
Hawliwch, ym mreichiau’r heli
draw’n y bae eich henwau chi
a chewch ar eich taith eich hun
hwyliau sidan glas wedyn.
Photo: Creative Commons, Flickr: Gabrielle Ludlow