SOURCE: Knight, Stephen. “Welsh Poetic's Well-Shaped Art.” Journal of European Studies 11, no. 41 (March 1981): 18-28.

In the following essay, Knight highlights the key attributes of Dafydd's work within the context of various translations and their ensuing repercussions.

This paper discusses problems and possibilities in translating a poem by Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely regarded as the greatest Welsh poet. The wit and beauty of Dafydd's themes and the subtlety of his poetic form make his work both fascinating and difficult to translate—impossible to translate, in the opinion of some Welsh poets and critics. Various attempts have been made in the past, however, and I believe they can be improved upon in a number of ways.

Dafydd ap Gwilym was writing in the fourteenth century; 1320-80 is usually accepted as an estimate of his life span. He came from a fairly noble family, closely connected with the Anglo-French administration of...