Bi-lingual reading recommendations

Can anyone recommend any books which are available in both Welsh and English? i.e. Have a version available which contains both languages (easier for translating as I go!). I know One Moonlit Night by Caradog Pritchard is available like this - just wondered if anyone else knew of any others? Preferably nothing too difficult!

TinTin and Asterixā€¦

And the pictures are great for contextā€¦

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And donā€™t forget Lewsyn Lwcus (Lucky Luke)!

Was never as popular in Britain as it was in the rest of Europe, but there are a few available in Welsh translations (as well as separately in English). Very good, as James Mahoney says!

But I think Tzevai Chong was asking for single books which contain both the Welsh and the English. ā€œOne Moonlit Night/Un Nos Ola Leuadā€ is available in an edition which contains the Welsh on the left page and and English translation on the right, arranged so that the text runs as simultaneously as possible.

Useful, as he says!

Unfortunately, I donā€™t know of any other such books, simple or otherwise.

There do seem to be quite a few young childrenā€™s picture books which are published with English and Welsh text, but I donā€™t know of any other novels, simple or otherwise, in the ā€œUn Nos Ola Leuadā€ form.

Maybe someone else does?

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I know someone who uses the Mr Men books because they have English sentences beneath the Welsh.

Aww I absolutely loved the Mr Men books when I was young. I will have to look around for those in Welsh.

Iā€™ve got a bunch of books about Wales that I have picked up at various tourist sites (e.g. St Fagans), which are set out like that: each page has 2 columns with the Welsh on one side and the English on the other. Theyā€™re not novels, but little booklets about, say, the Rebecca Riots, or Owain Glyndŵr. Theyā€™re published by Gower and the series is called ā€˜Cip ar Gymru / Wonder Walesā€™.

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Not bilingual but very interesting ā€œCant Y Cantā€ 100%. R. Alan Charles .100 reading topics for Welsh Learners each only 100 words. Isbn 978-1-8451-110-1.

Iā€™d forgotten about the Cip ar Gymru / Wonder Wales series ā€“ yes, thatā€™s one of the few genuinely bilingual reading series Iā€™ve seen. You can buy them at www.gwales.com ā€“ search for the series name. They arenā€™t written for learners, though, so no vocabulary and no simplified language (though my memory is that they arenā€™t in fancy literary Welsh or anything scary like that).

I love Cant y Cant ā€“ my single favorite starting-to-read book ā€“ and it too is available on gwales.

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Not bilingual, but possibly even better, is the Blodwen Jones trilogy by Bethan Gwanas: reasonably simple Welsh, and a word list at the bottom of every page. Plus they are hilarious stories :slight_smile:

@Owain: I had no idea that Lucky Luke is available in Welsh. What names did they give to the Dalton brothers?

Thanks for all the replies! Iā€™ll try and check a few of them out and see how I get on :slight_smile:

@Louis - Iā€™ve only read ā€œY Goets Fawrā€ and ā€œTraed Wadinā€ so far (the Stagecoach and the Tenderfoot"), and they donā€™t appear in either of those!

Interesting question, though. I mean, in the original French, Lucky Lukeā€™s name wasā€¦ Lucky Luke.

Didnā€™t Goscinny write more than a bit of English into the stories? A google images search seems to back up a vague memory that when he sang ā€œIā€™m a poor lonesome cowboy and a long way from homeā€ in the last panel of every story, it was in English in the original French. Not that that sentence makes any sense. Whereas it is translated into Welsh in the Welsh versions.

Not saying its good or bad, just vaguely interesting!

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Itā€™s a childrenā€™s book, but Gwich a Draig by Andrew Fusek Peters (Dragon and Mousie) has an English Translation in the back.

@Owain: Not saying its good or bad, just vaguely interesting!

Certainly curious, translating the original English names into Welsh. In the Dutch versions, the original English names were also used. Donā€™t know about other languages.

I actually dislike parallel texts. It takes too much self control to not let my eyes stray to the English and makes me more likely to check the meaning of words even when Iā€™m 90% sure I know them and could have made a guess from context and carried on in Welsh.

The extra effort required to look something up in a dictionary is sufficient deterrent to keep me focussed on the Welsh and getting the gist rather than every word.

Leia: I actually dislike parallel texts. It takes too much self control to not let my eyes stray to the English and makes me more likely to check the meaning of words even when Iā€™m 90% sure I know them and could have made a guess from context and carried on in Welsh.
The extra effort required to look something up in a dictionary is sufficient deterrent to keep me focussed on the Welsh and getting the gist rather than every word.

Yes. This. :slight_smile:

Not saying whether it is convincing or not, but a few comments from the translator of Lucky Luke on the above subject here-

!(http://home.btconnect.com/surrexit/dalenweb/Site/Releases_4.html)
(Bottom of page)

And here-

!(http://www.gwales.com/bibliographic/?isbn=9781906587154&tsid=4)
(In the update)

I should say though, for what itā€™s worth, that this issue aside, I find the translations very good- very smooth, very readable, and of course very funny! They are by the same person who does the present Welsh translations of Tintin and Asterix.
[In fact, I find them much better than the present English translations of Lucky Luke, which seem to have changed for the worse since I was a child.]
Well worth getting if you like Lucky Luke, or indeed want to try out other stuff written by Goscinny.

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You really are tempting me to have a look at Lucky Luke!
I must admit Iā€™m not a huge fan of dual texts either.
To add to my childrenā€™s book above I just remembered I have 3 Little Pigs (Y Tri Mochyn Bach) and Little Red Riding Hood (Hugan Fach Goch) by Heather Amery and Stephen Cartwright (Dref Wen books) that have Welsh at the top of the page and English at the bottom. If you go to the Dref Wen website (http://www.drefwen.com/bookstore/index.php?main_page=page&id=5&chapter=5)
There is an audio version of 3 little pigs you can listen to for free.
More usefully today I just received Y Detectif Geiriau (the childrenā€™s word detective) in the post. It looks like it will be good for learning vocab, and it puts the words into sentences, has lots of pictures and a basic storyline. It doesnā€™t have parallel text, but each word is illustrated and thereā€™s a vocab section at the back.

Hello All

I don;t know whether anyone else knows about this. I have been contacted on a separate issue by a bi-lingual magazine aimed at schools bu looking through it, I reckon we could all find it useful. I don;t know what their circulation intentions are but if I get further links i will post them, and have already suggested they aim at this broader audience.
Enjoy
https://www.cynnal.co.uk/cliciadur/papurau/rhifyn_8/en/index.html?p=1
I will also post this in the other post marked Bi-lingual.
Hwyl fawr
Mark