Does anyone happen to have or know where I can find the Welsh lyrics for the song ‘West Is Best’ as sung by Caryl Parry Jones? One You Tube performance claims to have subtitles, but I can’t see any. Thanks.
Sorry about any spelling mistakes
Drwy oriau aur yr hwyrddydd
Daeth llais y Gŵr o’r Mynydd
Yn gynnes dros y gweunydd
Ar adain yr ehedydd.
Fe ddaeth o hiraeth ei eiriau
Y gri o’i galon bur,
Geiriau mwyn y Gŵr o’r Mynydd
“Dewch bobol at eich gilydd”
Meddau llais y Gŵr o’r Mynydd,
“I alw o’r heolydd “
I daenu eich adenydd.
Cenwch eiriau’r gân i’r Winllan Wen
A rhoi’r cyfan iddi hi”
Dyna wnaeth y Gŵr o’r Mynydd.
“Dewch lawr o’r mynyddoedd
A lan o’r dyffrynoedd
I weiddi ag un floedd i bedwar ban y byd.
Yn gri o’r Gorllewin
Cyhoeddwn fel un dyn
Mai West is Best.”
Fel un fe awn i’w ddilyn,
Dros y bryniau, drwy bob dyffryn,
Yn fyddin i’w amddiffyn,
Heb fradu’r un funudyn.
Ac mae’r môr a’r maes
A’r garreg las, a’r lofa oll yn un
Yng nghri y Gŵr o’r Mynydd.
Mae angen y dagrau’n ei lygaid yn awr i’n galw,
A’r fflamau sy’n llosgi’n ei enaid yw ein llusern ni.
Many thanks. The spelling looks OK to me. I can read most things in Welsh fairly well now, but I seem to get no nearer to being able to hear an unknown song and decipher the words, so I’m very grateful for this kind of help.
I give my effort at a literal translation in case it’s any use to anyone. I take the song to be a patriotic invitation to celebrate Wales and Welshness. I take ‘(G)winllan Wen’, the Fair Vineyard, to be a poetic name for Wales (cf. Sanders Lewis: ‘Gwinllan a roddwyd i’m gofal yw Cymru fy ngwlad’). I don’t know whether ‘y Gŵr o’r Mynydd’ refers to some specific Welsh cultural figure or is just a personification of Wales: can anyone clarify?
West is Best
Through the golden hours of evening
Came the voice of the Man from the Mountains
Warm across the meadows
On the wing of the lark.
His words came out of longing
The cry of his pure heart,
The gentle words of the Man from the Mountains
’Come together, people’
Said the voice of the Man from the Mountains
‘To call from the streets
To spread your wings
Sing the words of the song to the Fair Vineyard
And render all to her.”
Thus said the Man from the Mountains.
Chorus:
‘Come down from the mountains
And up from the valleys
To shout with one shout to the four corners of the world
The cry of the West
Let us proclaim as one man
That West is Best.’
As one we will go to follow them
Over the hills, through every valley,
An army to defend them
Without betraying for one moment.
And the sea and the field
And the grey rock, and the mine all as one
In the cry of the Man from the Mountains.
Chorus:
The need of the tears in his eyes is calling us now
And the flames that burn in his soul are our lantern.
Chorus:
Haia, this song was written specially for Ray Gravell “gwr o’r mynydd”, when he passed away. I was privileged to be in the chorus at the Eisteddfod when Caryl Parry Jones sang this. Such a moving tribute