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GŴYL Y BLAIDD
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THE FESTIVAL OF THE WOLF
YSGRIFENNU FFOADURIAID
YNG NGHYMRU / WRITING REFUGEES IN WALES 4
Golygwyd gan /
Edited by Tom Cheesman, Grahame Davies a / and Sylvie Hoffmann
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BARDDONIAETH, RHYDDIAITH, DRAMA A THYSTIOLAETH
GAN FFOADURIAID A CHEISWYR LLOCHES, OCHR YN
OCHR AG YSGRIFENWYR ERAILL YNG NGHYMRU, O’R
GORFFENNOL A’R PRESENNOL, GAN GYN:
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POETRY,
FICTION, DRAMA AND TESTIMONY BY
REFUGEES AND
ASYLUM SEEKERS, SIDE BY SIDE
WITH OTHER
WRITERS IN WALES, PAST AND
PRESENT, INCLUDING:
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*
Mahmood Ahmadifard * Anahita
Alikhani * Abdallah Bashir Khairi
* George Borrow * Eric Ngalle
Charles
* Tom Cheesman
* Alexander Cordell * Grahame
Davies * Menna Elfyn *
Donald Evans * Humberto Gatica
* Hamira Geedy
* Kate Bosse - Griffiths * Gerallt
Gymro (Gerald of Wales) * Soleïman
Adel Guémar
* Josef Herman * Sylvie Hoffmann
* Andy Hyka * Alhaji Sheku Kamara
* Aliou Keita * Aimé Kongolo
* Maxson Sahr Kpakio *
William Mbwembwe * Michael
Mokako * Sieffre o Fynwy (Geoffrey
of Monmouth)
* Gwyn Thomas *
Gabriel Lenge Vingu * E. Llwyd
Williams
Cyhoeddir hwn
gyda chefnogaeth ariannol
Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
ac Wythnos Ffoaduriaid Cymru
Published with the
financial support of the
Welsh Books Council and
Refugee Week Wales
Sara Hadi:
Josef Herman:
Josef
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Tuesday
13 June, 2006, at 7.30 - 10.30 pm, in the
Dylan Thomas Centre, we launched
"GŴYL Y BLAIDD
THE FESTIVAL OF THE
WOLF"
Press
release Cymraeg/English: click here
Press coverage
Performing at the event:
Mike Da Costa, Kwrdistan,
Fflur Dafydd,
Adel Guémar,
Alice Salomon, Sylvie Hoffmann,
Grahame Davies, Aimé Kongolo, Alhaji Kamara,
Aled
Edwards, Andrew Davies AM,
Councillor Gerald
Clement,
and
others...
launch event supported
by Refugee Week Wales
+
Displaced People in
Action + Awards 4 A
Photo: Evening Post
T-shirt for sale: click
here
Photos from a reading with
music at Pontardawe Festival (a Swansea
Libraries event), August 06:
Co-editor Tom Cheesman and
poet Soleiman Adel Guémar
Poet Alhaji Sheiku Kamara
Co-editor and poet
Sylvie Hoffmann
Singer-songwriter Tracey
Curtis
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The title poem,
"The Festival of the
Wolf",
commemorates a massacre of over 500 citizens, killed by the
army's machine guns, rifles and pistols, in and
around the
capital city of the poet's country, in 1988. The regime
responsible is still in power today. It is one of many
wolfish regimes around the world which have no respect
for human rights. The title is bitterly ironic.
You can find the
poem on page 48 of the book in Welsh and on page 49 in
English. At the bottom of this web page (click
here), it is printed in the French original, and in
Welsh and English. We would like to collect translations of
this poem in as many languages as possible. Please
contact Tom (t.cheesman@swan.ac.uk) if you can translate
the poem into a different language, and we'll add it
here.
South Wales Evening
Post, 15 June 2006
CITY PRAISED FOR HELPING REFUGEES
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SHAUN GREANEY:
SHAUN.GREANEY@SWWP.CO.UK
10:00 - 15 June 2006
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Swansea's proud history of
welcoming refugees has been hailed at the launch
of a new book. The book is aimed at allowing
readers to discover the individuals behind "the
blurry, scary media images of asylum seekers".
Swansea West AM Andrew Davies, who was at the
launch of the book, The Festival of the Wolf,
said the city had a tradition of giving help to
those in need.
The book, the fourth anthology of writing by
asylum seekers and refugees, includes poems and
stories from contemporary people fleeing
persecution and oppression, as well as texts
about refugees in Wales over the centuries.
Mr Davies said Swansea was known in the 17th
Century as "a city of refuge".
Speaking at the Dylan Thomas Centre, he praised
the work of the Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers
Support Group.
"I give my personal support and that of my party
to the work that you have done and
congratulations on what you have achieved," he
told its members.
One of the book's editors, Tom Cheesman, wrote
in the foreword: "Growing numbers of asylum
seekers are condemned to destitution. They are
entitled to no shelter, food or work - and this,
in a wealthy, otherwise civilised country.
"Some applications are dodgy, but the vast
majority of asylum seekers are fleeing from
danger to life and limb, from oppressive
regimes, religious and political persecution,
civil war, conscription by rebel militias;
fleeing economic and ecological collapse.
"Or they may be fleeing domestic violence, the
stigma of illegitimacy, divorce or widowhood, or
from inter-tribal slavery; or just fleeing from
general violence, hunger, ill-health, lack of
education, a total lack of a life worth living
for oneself and one's children."
The Festival of the Wolf is published by Hafan
Books and is available from most local bookshops
price £6.99.
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La fête du loup
Soleïman Adel Guémar
les mains dans les
poches
je marchais le
long de la rue Ben M’hidi
c’était un jour de
pluie fine et le soleil
giclait d’entre
les nuages
je n’avais pas
besoin
de parapluie
de voiture
de rendez-vous
galant
pour être heureux
je voulais
simplement boire
une tasse de café
noir près du port
et regarder la mer
en face
mais ce jour là
les bateaux en
rade cachaient l’horizon
des corbeaux
croassaient sur les toits
une rumeur diffuse
montait de la ville
ils n’avaient pas
encore tiré sur la foule
The festival of the wolf
translated by Tom Cheesman and John Goodby
hands in my pockets
I was walking along the rue Ben
M’hidi
it was a day of mizzle and the
sunlight
was spurting out between the
clouds
I had no need
of umbrella
of car
of lovers’ tryst
to be happy
I simply wanted to drink
a cup of black coffee near the
port
and gaze out facing the sea
but that day
ships in the harbour hid the
horizon
crows were cawing on the roofs
a vague hubbub was rising from
the town
they hadn’t yet fired on the
crowd
Gŵyl y
blaidd
translated by Grahame Davies
dwylo mewn pocedi
roeddwn i’n cerdded ar hyd y rue Ben M’hidi
diwrnod o smwclaw gyda’r heulwen
yn tasgu rhwng y cymylau
doedd dim angen
ymbarél
car
nac oed cariadon
er mwyn bod yn hapus
dim ond eisiau yfed
paned o goffi du ger y porthladd
a syllu allan ar y môr
ond y diwrnod hwnnw
roedd llongau yn yr harbwr yn cuddio’r gorwel
roedd brain yn crawcian ar y toeau
a dwndwr annelwig yn codi o’r dref
doedden nhw ddim wedi tanio at y dorf eto
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