Llyfr Geirfa fy Nhad / My Father’s Vocabulary Book by Gwyneth Lewis

Llyfr Geirfa fy Nhad / My Father’s Vocabulary Book

What was he reading
bron bob gyda’r nos — almost every night?

He was wrth fy modd —
at his pleasure — learning that rhawn
was horsehair. As for his soul

ar ddifancoll — lost in perdition? Swearing
was By Goblin — Myn Coblyn and prissy lout,

llabwst. My father’s Welsh
was Biblical, so when he was dying

and asked me, ‘Beth yw gwelltog?’
we felt the shadow of the valley of death.
Gwelltog is green, as in pastures, lie down.