Y Gwynt o’r Dwyrain Chwyth
Originally titled Seeräuberjenny in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Die Dreigroschenoper (1928) through several English translations Pirate Jenny has since become a popular standard and often disassociated from its original dramatic context. A revenge fantasy sung by the character of Polly at her own wedding banquet, it is a tale of a maid ascending to the status of a pirate queen, ordering the execution of all of her customers before “the black freighter / disappears out to sea / And on it is me.”
Y Gwynt o’r Dwyrian Chwyth is a Welsh-language performance lecture that offers an analysis of the song, its numerous English translations, as well as some of its most seminal and famous interpretations. The title is taken from the Welsh lullaby Si Hei Lwli and translates as ‘the wind blows from the east’; alluding not only to the geographical, linguistic and political contexts in which Seeräuberjenny was originally performed, but also to its subsequent evolution into an English-language, and particularly American standard. Projected surtitles provide a simultaneous English translation throughout.
Ymddangosodd y gân Seeräuberjenny am y tro cyntaf yn y sioe Die Dreigroschenoper gan Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill yn 1928. Trwy gyfrwng sawl sawl cyfieithiad gwahanol i’r Saesneg, mae’r gân bellach wedi'i thrawsnewid i fod yn gân boblogaidd heb fawr o gysylltiad â’i chyd-destun dramataidd gwreiddiol. Yn ffantasi dialedd a ganir gan gymeriad Polly yn ystod ei brecwast priodas, mae’r gân yn adrodd hanes morwyn mewn gwesty yn esgyn i statws brenhines y môr ladron, yn dedfrydu pob un o ddynion y dref i’w dienyddio ac yna, “bydd y llong honno â’r wyth hwyl â / Phob un o’i gynnau’n llwythog / Yn diflannu gyda fi.”
Mi dwi’n rhoi darlith berfformiadol ynglŷn â hyn i gyd, gan geisio bod yn hanesyddol gywir ac yn ysgolhaig gan gynnig dadansoddiad llenyddol o’r gwahanol gyfieithiadau. Ac yna mi 'dwi’n canu’r gan. Yn yr Almaeneg gwreiddiol. Gan mai hynny, er gwaetha’r tueddiadau ymddangosiadol tuag at yr ysgolheigaidd, ‘dw i’n wirioneddol wedi’i bod isio’i neud erioed.
Gareth Llŷr 2009
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