From wales to Kerala, singing all the way

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The phonetic octaves of Welsh had a sing-song quality to it as Twm Morys brought forth with it all the warmth that the rustic language holds.    The rebounding vigour of the tremulant ‘r’ sound that filled his poem was evocative, perhaps of the urgency of a wind that swept the hilly terrain of his country. “Welsh is a very singable language and the song I presented today was a very old folk song. It has been sung in a variety of tunes and I sang one of the versions,” said Twm after the multilingual poetry session at the Hay Festival Kerala which began on Thursday at the Kanakakkunnu Palace. Welsh poetry, oral and written, is a rich repertoire on the geography of the Celtic nation, said Twm, who has published two volumes of poetry in the Welsh language. A trained musician, Twm plays the guitar, the harp and the Welsh bagpipe. “I write two kinds of poems. The traditional Welsh poetry which has an intriguing rhyme and meter which are hard to master. It took me seven years of practice to be able to write in that style. The second kind of poems are written especially to be sung. It has to be musical and should be interesting to listen to,” he said.  The folk song that Twm presented at the poetry reading session was one that linked all living beings to mother earth. Each line of the song added a living organism to the cycle which was then wound back to the vital connection with the earth. “The song is a typical example of Welsh poetry. Our country is very rural, full of trees and greenery. Yes, some of it is changing, but it has largely remained much the same,” said Twm pulling the guitar over his shoulders and walking his lanky frame to the meadows stretching across the hall. “I have been to Delhi but it is the first time I am coming to Kerala. The weather is delightful here,” he said, looking around.  Twm said that his own poetry is more about life,“everything in life”. “I do write about the history and mythology of Wales. But I also travel a lot and it is reflected in my poems. He writes for television and radio and sings with the folk-rock band, Bob Delyn a’r Ebillion. He was also the Welsh children’s poet laureate for 2009-10.Three other poets from Wales - Robert Minhinnick, Sian Melangell Dafydd and Eurig Salisbury - participated in the reading along with Hindi poet Anamika, Sampurna Chattarji, who writes in English, and Anitha Thampi, who writes in Malayalam. K Satchidanadan chaired the session and presented his poem.