A Bibliography of Welsh Literature in English Translation

Book excerpt: A Bibliography of Welsh Literature in English Translation is a groundbreaking volume that maps for the first time the translation history of Wales's two languages. This is also the first listing of Welsh-English literary translations and should be an indispensable tool not only for scholars but also for lay readers and for students of Celtic and Welsh literatures. As a resource that opens up for the first time one of the richest fields of translation in the British context, this bibliography is also a pioneering Welsh contribution to the burgeoning academic field of translation studies. The Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales (CREW), directed by Professor M. Wynn Thomas, received a prestitgious research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board for a one-year project in 2001 that was to culminate in a web-based database, an international conference and this published volume. S. Rhian Reynolds was employed as the postdoctoral research officer for the project, which grew far beyond the expected lifespan due to the wealth and quantity of the material uncovered. Translation practice has encompased the whole wealth of Welsh-language literature and among the thousands of translations recorded here are the acknowledged classics of European culture---The Mabinogion, the work of Dafydd ap Gwilym, the hymns of William Williams Pantycelyn and the plays, fiction, and political writings of Saunders Lewis. Ever since Welsh-English translation was first instigated in the eighteenth century it has provided an invaluable interface between Wales and the wider world (even non-anglophone cultures usually discover Welsh-language literature through the medium of English), between Wales and the other countries of the British Isles and (most importantly of all, perhaps) between the two cultures of Wales itself.