The statue of Jรกnos Arany in front of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest (Photograph: Lรกszlรณ Alapfy)
Karl Jenkins
A Celebration of Civil Courage
Cantata for Chorus, Soloists & Orchestra Original Hungarian poem János Arany English translation Peter Zollman Welsh translation tWM MORYS Commissioned by LÁSZLÓ BARADÁCS & LÁSZLÓ IRINYI
King Edward scales the hills of Wales upon his stallion‌
Arany János
János Arany
A WALESI BÁRDOK
THE BARDS OF WALES
Edward király, angol király Léptet fakó lován: Hadd látom, úgymond, mennyit ér A velszi tartomány.
King Edward scales the hills of Wales Upon his stallion. ”Hear my decree! I want to see, My new dominion.
Van-e ott folyó és földje jó? Legelőin fü kövér? Használt-e a megöntözés: A pártos honfivér?
”Show me the yield of every field, The grain, the grass, the wood! Is all the land now moist and rich With red rebellious blood?
S a nép, az istenadta nép, Ha oly boldog-e rajt’ Mint akarom, s mint a barom, Melyet igába hajt?
”And are the Welsh, the wretched Welsh, A peaceful, happy folk? I want them pleased, just like the beast They harness in the yoke.”
Felség! valóban koronád Legszebb gyémántja Velsz: Földet, folyót, legelni jót, Hegy-völgyet benne lelsz.
”Sire, this jewel in your crown, Your Wales is fair and good: Rich is the yield of every field The grassland and the wood.
S a nép, az istenadta nép Oly boldog rajta, Sire! Kunyhói mind hallgatva, mint Megannyi puszta sír.
”And Sire, the Welsh, God’s gift, the Welsh, So pleased they all behave! Dark every hut, fearfully shut And silent as the grave.”
Edward király, angol király Léptet fakó lován: Körötte csend amerre ment, És néma tartomány.
King Edward scales the hills of Wales Upon his stallion. And where he rides dead silence hides In his dominion.
Montgomery a vár neve, Hol aznap este szállt; Montgomery, a vár ura, Vendégli a királyt.
He comes to high Montgomery To banquet and to rest; It falls on Lord Montgomery To entertain the guest:
Vadat és halat, s mi jó falat Szem szájnak ingere, Sürgő csoport, száz szolga hord, Hogy nézni is tereh;
With fish and meat and fruit so sweet, To tease the tongue, the eyes, A splendid spread for a king to be fed, A lordly enterprise.
S mind, amiket e szép sziget Ételt-italt terem; S mind, ami bor pezsegve forr Túl messzi tengeren.
The servers file with the best this Isle Can grow in drink and food, And pour the fine Bordeaux and Rhine In gracious plentitude.
Ti urak, ti urak! hát senkisem Koccint értem pohárt? Ti urak, ti urak!... ti velsz ebek! Ne éljen Eduárd?
”Now drink my health, you gentle sirs, And you, my noble host. You sirs, Welsh sirs... you filthy curs, I want the loyal toast!
Vadat és halat, s mi az ég alatt Szem-szájnak kellemes, Azt látok én: de ördög itt Belül minden nemes.
”The fish, the meat you served to eat Was fine and ably done. But deep inside it’s hate you hide: You loathe me, every one.
Ti urak, ti urak, hitvány ebek! Ne éljen Eduárd? Hol van, ki zengje tetteim – Elő egy velszi bárd!
”Well then, you sirs, you filthy curs, Who will now toast the king? I want a bard to praise my deeds, A bard of Wales to sing!”
Egymásra néz a sok vitéz, A vendég velsz urak; Orcáikon, mint félelem, Sápadt el a harag.
They look askance with a furtive glance, The noblemen of Wales; Their cheeks turn white in deadly fright, As crimson anger pales. ”Off to the stake!” The king commands…
Szó bennszakad, hang fennakad, Lehellet megszegik. – Ajtó megől fehér galamb, Ősz bárd emelkedik.
Deep silence falls upon the halls, And lo, before their eyes They see an old man, white as snow, An ancient bard to rise.
Itt van, király, ki tetteidet Elzengi, mond az agg; S fegyver csörög, haló hörög Amint húrjába csap.
”I shall recite your glorious deeds Just as you bid me, Sire;” And death rattles in grim battles As he touches the lyre.
„Fegyver csörög, haló hörög, A nap vértóba száll, Vérszagra gyűl az éji vad: Te tetted ezt, király!
”Grim death rattles, the brave battles And blood bestains the sun, Your deeds reek high, up to the sky: You are the guilty one!
Levágva népünk ezrei, Halomba, mint kereszt, Hogy sírva tallóz aki él: Király, te tetted ezt!”
”Our dead are plenty as the corn When harvest is begun, And as we reap and glean, we weep: You did this, guilty one!”
Máglyára el! igen kemény – Parancsol Eduárd – Ha! lágyabb ének kell nekünk; S belép egy ifju bárd.
”Off to the stake!” The king commands, ”This was churlishly hard. Sing us, you there, a softer air, You, young and courtly bard!”
„Ah! lágyan kél az esti szél Milford-öböl felé; Szüzek siralma, özvegyek Panasza nyög belé.
”A breeze, so soft, does sweetly waft Where Milford Haven lies, With wailing woes of doomed widows And mournful maidens’ cries.
Ne szülj rabot, te szűz! anya Ne szoptass csecsemőt!...” S int a király. S elérte még A máglyára menőt.
Maiden, don’t bear a slave! Mother, Your babe must not be nursed!...” A royal nod. He reached the stake Together with the first.
De vakmerőn s hivatlanul Előáll harmadik; Kobzán a dal magára vall, Ez ige hallatik:
But boldly and without a call A third one takes the floor; Without salute he strikes the lute, His song begins to soar:
„Elhullt csatában a derék – No halld meg, Eduárd: Neved ki diccsel ejtené, Nem él oly velszi bárd.
”The brave were killed, just as you willed, Or languish in your gaols: To hail your name or sing your fame You’ll find no bard in Wales.
Emléke sír a lanton még – No halld meg, Eduárd: Átok fejedre minden dal, Melyet zeng velszi bárd.”
”He may be gone, but his songs live on – The toast is: King beware! You bear the curse and even worse Of Welsh bards everywhere.”
Meglátom én! – S parancsot ád Király rettenetest: Máglyára, ki ellenszegül, Minden velsz énekest!
”I’ll see to that! – Thunders the king – You spiteful Welsh peasants! The stake will toast you, every bard Who spurns my ordinance!”
Szolgái szétszáguldanak, Ország-szerin tova. Montgomeryben így esett A híres lakoma. –
His men went forth to search the North, The West, the South, the East, And so befell, the truth to tell, In Wales the famous feast. –
S Edward király, angol király Vágtat fakó lován; Körötte ég földszint az ég: A velszi tartomány.
King Edward fled, headlong he sped His chestnut stallion, And in his wake a blazing stake: The Welsh dominion.
Ötszáz, bizony, dalolva ment Lángsírba velszi bárd: De egy se bírta mondani Hogy: éljen Eduárd. –
Five hundred went singing to die, Five hundred in the blaze, But none would sing to cheer the king, The loyal toast to raise. –
King Edward fled, headlong he sped his chestnut stallion…
Ha, ha! mi zúg?... mi éji dal London utcáin ez? Felköttetem a lord-majort, Ha bosszant bármi nesz!
My chamberlain, what is the din In London’s streets so late? The Lord Mayor will hang by the neck If it does not abate!
Áll néma csend; légy szárnya bent, Se künn, nem hallatik: „Fejére szól, ki szót emel! Király nem alhatik.”
Gone is the din: without, within They all silently creep, ”Who breaks the spell, goes straight to hell! The king can’t fall asleep.
Ha, ha! elő síp, dob, zene! Harsogjon harsona: Fülembe zúgja átkait A velszi lakoma...
”The drum, the fife shall come to life And let the trumpets roar, To rise above that fatal curse That haunts me evermore...”
De túl zenén, túl síp-dobon, Riadó kürtön át: Ötszáz énekli, hangosan A vértanúk dalát.
But over drums and piercing fifes, Beyond the soldiers’ hails, They swell the song, five hundred strong, Those martyred bards of Wales.
(1857)
(Translated by Peter Zollman, 1994)
English text used with the translator’s permission Arany’s ballads illustrated by Mihály Zichy were first published by Mór Ráth in Budapest in 1896
”Off to the stake!” The king commands…
Photograph by Mitch Jenkins
Karl Jenkins (1944-)
János Arany (1817-1882)
Peter Zollman (1931-)
Debrecen Reformed College Chorale - Kántus surrounding the statue of János Arany on 29 June 2008 (Photograph: Erzsébet Winter)
Karl Jenkins (1944-) A recent survey shows that Karl Jenkins is now the most performed living composer in the world. Educated at Gowerton Grammar School, Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music, London, The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace alone has been performed nearly 1000 times in 20 different countries since the CD was released while his recorded output has resulted in seventeen gold and platinum disc awards. His style and integrity has transcended musical boundaries encompassing jazz-rock with Soft Machine, the global ‘crossover’ phenomenon Adiemus, soundtracks for Levis and British Airways, while stopping off along the way to score a Kiefer Sutherland movie, be a castaway on BBC “Desert Island Discs”, be featured by Melvyn Bragg on the ITV seminal South Bank Show and be awarded the Freedom of the City of London. Recordings on EMI Classics include Requiem, Stabat Mater, Quirk and Stella Natalis whilst he’s composed music for HRH The Prince of Wales, Bryn Terfel, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Evelyn Glennie and the London Symphony Orchestra amongst many others. A Doctor of Music, he holds Fellowships, Honorary Doctorates and Professorships at five universities or conservatoires, including the Royal Academy of Music, where a room has been named in his honour and in recent years, has consistently been the highest placed living composer in Classic FM’s “Hall of Fame”. In November 2009 he was given the Cymru For The World Award and in March 2010 was honoured with the Hopkins Medal given by the St. David’s Society for the State of New York. He holds the Classic FM ‘Red f ‘award for ‘outstanding service to classical music’ and was awarded an OBE, by Her Majesty The Queen, in the 2005 New Year’s Honours List and a CBE in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours “for services to music”.
Biography of Karl Jenkins reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes
János Arany (1817-1882) Hungary’s greatest epic poet and most influential literary figure in the 19th century was born in Nagyszalonta (Salonta). He learned to read and write early on, and read everything he could find in Hungarian and Latin. Arany was a student of the Reformed College of Debrecen, a stronghold of Hungarian protestantism and culture. In his early years he worked as teacher, actor, newspaper editor, and in various other positions. The years before the 1848-49 Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence were a happy period in his life. He established himself as a major poet, married and learnt enough English to be able to read Shakespeare in the original. Arany was a man of immense intellectual integrity. He was elected a member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1858, and was the secretary-general of the Academy from 1865. Also he was elected director of the Kisfaludy Society, the most important literary association in Hungary at that time. He translated three dramas of Shakespeare into Hungarian, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and King John. They are considered to be among the greatest translations into Hungarian. He wrote one of his most famous ballads, The Bards of Wales when the Austrian Emperor visited Hungary for the first time after the defeat of the Revolution and War of Independence. Arany was asked to write a poem of welcome on this festive occasion, but he created a dramatic refusal of this request instead, by telling a legend from medieval Welsh history. Although doubted by historians, it is held in oral tradition, that King Edward of England executed 500 Welsh bards after the first conquest of Wales in 1277, to prevent them inciting Welsh youth to rebellion through songs of the glorious past. The Bards of Wales ballad is a part of the Hungarian National Curriculum and is well known by all native Hungarians. Arany’s impact on the Hungarian language may be compared to Dante’s on Standard Italian or Luther’s on High German. He became a teacher of his nation and a major determining influence shaping Hungarian literary standards for the next century and beyond.
Peter Zollman (1931-) Peter Zollman was born in Budapest in 1931. After the defeat of the 1956 Revolution he left Hungary and settled in England. His published works include translations of Arany (Ballads, Atlantis-Merlin), Kányádi (There is a Land, Corvina), Kosztolányi (36 Poems, Maecenas), Baka (Selected Poems, Abbey Press), Orbán (The Witching Hour of the Night, Atlantis-Centaur), Attila József (43 Poems, Maecenas), Nemes Nagy (51 Poems, Maecenas) and Petrőczi (Peregrinatio poetica, Fekete Sas). He also made substantial contributions to such major anthologies as The Lost Rider (Corvina), Attila József’s Poems and Fragments (Argumentum-Cardinal), In Quest of the Miracle Stag, vols. 1 & 2 (Atlantis-Centaur), The Audit Is Done (European Cultural Review), An Island of Sound (Harvill), Hide and Seek Contemporary Hungarian Literature (JAK) and A Tribute to Attila József (Abbey Press). In 1997 (reprinted 1998) he produced a well-received collection of his own work (Babel. Translations, mainly from Hungarian). His published verse-drama translations Csongor and Tünde (Vörösmarty), Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (Balázs) and Laodamia (Babits), published by Atlantis-Merlin Theatre, had several well received performances in Edinburgh, Budapest and in India. Duke Bluebeard’s Castle was reprinted in 2001. Peter Zollman received the Milán Füst Prize (1st Class) for literary translation from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1999, the Pro Cultura Hungariae medal in 2002 and the Times - Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation in 2007. He was short-listed for the Weidenfeld Prize in 2000 and 2004. His volume of Attila József translations was selected by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney as a Book of the Year in 2005.
Karl Jenkins The Bards of Wales
A Walesi Bárdok
| Beirdd cymru
Castle of Montgomery - Photograph by Muba
Patron His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Honorary Patrons Prof. József Pálinkás, President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest Councillor Cerys Thomas, Mayor of Montgomery 2010-2011, Wales László Török, Mayor of Nagyszalonta, Romania Commissioned by Concert Masters International, Budapest Artistic Commission Prof. András Batta, Rector of the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest Alun John, Conductor, Member of The Bardic Circle of the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Cardiff Sándor Berkesi, Church Music Director, Conductor of Reformed College Chorale - Kántus, Debrecen John Asquith, Historian, Conductor of Cor Meibion Morlais, Ferndale Dr Peter Zollman, Poet, Poetry Translator, Walton on Thames Soma Szabó, Conductor of Cantemus Mixed Choir, Nyíregyháza Executive Commission Gábor Móczár, Vice President of the European Choral Association - Europa Cantat, Pomáz Júlia Patócs, President of János Arany Cultural Society, Nagyszalonta, Romania Erzsébet Strausz, PR Manager of MÁV Symphony Orchestra, Budapest György Lendvai, Director of MÁV Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Visual Concept & Design Alapfy Graphic Studio, Budapest Project Manager & Producer László Irinyi, Managing Director of Concert Masters International, Budapest Special thanks to Valéria Meszlényi, Tamás Irinyi, Károly Kovács, Márta Golub, László Dura Hefin Owen, Craig Roberts, Francis Oeser, Adrian Adams, Keith Smith, Péter Malatinszky, László Alapfy Nándor Papp, Tünde Irinyi, Ilona Kálmán, Tamás Szentmiklóssy, Tibor Noseda, Zoltán Göllesz
© The Bards of Wales Project is an initiative of Concert Masters International