About 'Let the World�s Peoples Shout'

This is a poem that is primarily concerned with languages. A few years ago, I wrote another poem called ‘Song of the Voiceless Person to British Telecom', whereby a request from a telephone operator for me to ‘speak up’ prompted a poem dealing with the very basic issue of speech. In our globalised world, it seemed to me that the voiceless were those who did not speak the universal language of English.

Every year, I tell myself that I am not going to write another poem about language but somehow they always come to me. This is the genesis of a poem in that an idea perhaps will build slowly within me and refuse to go away. If a word or phrase gnaws at me, I always know that I will eventually have to give way. Even if one resists the notion, the phrase comes at you, like a few chords of a song that you sing over and over until the music gets the better of you. That’s how it was with ‘Let the World’s Peoples Shout’.

In this poem, I ponder within the very sweeping first statement about people who learn new languages and how ‘time-free' one becomes. This ‘time-free’ phrase is double edged in that it refers to the language tenses as well as the tensions in a way a language is devoid of  a history. There is also immediacy in the first stanza in that one goes through the motions of what happens when we learn a new tongue. There is some alliteration here e.g.  or ‘baby bumping along on its bottom’.

This reference to infancy is quite pertinent in that one becomes ‘born’ again in taking on a new language as if we are back at the early years of life. In the second stanza, there is a sudden change of tone, and the poet becomes more animated in imagining the people of the world all having to learn the language of their neighbours. The poetic language used is also very unpoetic and the metaphors display military interventions. By the middle of the stanza however peace becomes a desirable state. We are also in the realm of past and present and their disappearance will, according to the poem, bring forth a perfect world.

In the third stanza, I have chosen words that are normally associated with dissent and division in order to build on the message in the poem. We are physically remaking the world through the open mouth, through new ways of utterance. There is a slight reference at the end of the stanza to a parable in the Bible where Christ tells a paralysed man to get up and carry his bed with him.

The main message of the poem comes at the penultimate stanza when the new peoples with their new language and new concerns may not have time to even contemplate hatred. I return to the early days of speech and refer to tribes and founding stones in order to remind ourselves of where we came from.

The ‘baby' image I employed at the end of the last stanza is reiterated in the last few lines with the babies in Babel, their yoke will be raised. Babel is again a Biblical reference at the many languages spoken in Babel. This time, there is an echo of the United Nations as the new Babel, is able to spread peace and humanity.

Some Poetic Devices

I have already referred to alliteration. In writing in Welsh, the original language context in which this poem was written, there is a tendency for rhyme and consonant echoing to be inherent in the work. This poem is indeed, a verse libre poem, that is, it is in free verse but in Welsh it appears far tighter in word-order than in the English translation. We have a special way of writing in Welsh which is called ‘cynghanedd’, strict metre, and though I don’t write in this way very often, I am influenced by it. Here are two examples.

Our man in Botswana – notice the hidden rhyme in ‘wan’ to answer ‘man’
He’ll dash to the Cash and Carry – (a kind of shop) – notice the rhyme as well as the same consonants with cash and carry .

How does one know which poetic form to adopt is a very common question and one we often ask ourselves. I can see, in looking analytically at the poem, that it is Psalm–like in tone – Let the people… This style is rather grandiose with its elevated tone and the way in which it accentuates in the second verse, becoming full of flight and fancy. It's true to say I wasn't sure where this poem was going at the outset. Again this is all part of the risk-taking of writing. If I knew what I was going to write, then there’d be no excitement in it at all.

Pace and timing is also important, although these elements are usually dictated by the poem and its message.  But in this poem, there is very little straightforward narrative to move it along and it tends to assert a kind of universal stance. This is not typical of my poems, as they usually start with a personal story or incident and then go out to sea. But it seems with this poem that I am already in the high seas, not knowing quite how to navigate.

The ‘volta’ (turn) in the second stanza –  ‘Well, then’ is where the poem really does find its own direction.

Criticism of the Poem

It is always good for the poet to be critical of his or her work even if they are experienced published poets. This poem has also been filmed for a BBC Arts Programme and has been translated into many languages. But if I were doing a 'close reading' of the poem, I can see that it is a very difficult poem for a reader. It requires a knowledge of Biblical material as well as the understanding of learning new languages. The critic in me would say that it is probably too wordy but the poet in me, in defence, would respond by saying that it’s the verbosity that gives the poem its sense of expansion. You, as reader, must decide for yourself. What one hopes for in a poem though, is that a reader will find something in the words that connect.

Translation

This translation by Joseph. P. Clancy is very close to the original and I’m pleased that he has managed to carry over the nuances, the complexities of language, and ideas into English. By having wonderful translators, I am able to write in Welsh, as I know full well that they will be carried safely into English. This allows me to use Welsh as my creative force; my energy and imagination thrives in that language – a language understood by only half a million people at present. And yet, the richness of the language is immense – and has an unbroken literary tradition dating back from the sixth century to this day. And before you question why I write in this language rather than the English language, my reply would be a simple one, because it is my mother tongue, my first language and mine. Through this language, which is referred to in the feminine in  Welsh, I am free to explore even if she is ‘danger’s daughter’ and like many endangered languages still battling even today  for her survival.

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