Welsh songs by Katherine Jenkins including All Through The Night

Katherine Jenkins, Welsh soprano. Photo by David Skinner in Wikipedia Creative Commons. Picture taken in 2011.

When I went to Writers and Artists Holiday in Fishguard in July 2017 I heard a Welsh male voice choir sing All Through The Night in Welsh. According to Wikipedia this particular song is very popular with Welsh male voice choirs. I recognised the last word nos, night, because I had learned a few welsh words from duo lingo.

I decided to look up this song and a few others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_Hyd_y_Nos
Wikipedia gives numerous translations or versions of this song in English, all equally beautiful and soothing.

I also liked hearing on Youtube soprano Katherine Jenkins singing Welsh songs such as Calon lan.
It is about valuing an honest heart more than jewels.
Calon or galon is a heart. The adjective comes second. Lan means pure.
Here are translations of Calon lan:
http://www.madog.org/dysgwyr/caneuon/can03.html

She also sings the Welsh National Anthem, Land of My Fathers. I looked at what I had typed and thought: Have I got that right? Should it be singular or plural? Surely one only has one father? Presumably it's like the German fatherland, but means ancestors, all the fathers or ancestors going back, or all the people nowadays, collective, like the people in Dylan Thomas's imaginary village, the men (and women) living there now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEOxEHS6et4&list=RD8NybNB63W4E&index=3

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/fun-stuff/8-welsh-songs-achingly-beautiful-11693991

Her voice is wonderful. She has been awarded the OBE. Wikipedia has a lovely photo of her by David Skinner who loaded it up on Flickr then onto Wikipedia in Creative Commons.

I have always found it easier to learn words when they are arranged in a song, rhyming, with the tune  to remind you of each word and the sequence. Also songs often have repetition.
calon hones, calon lan.
An honest heart, a pure heart.

Mostly Welsh does not use a or the. Adjectives follow the noun in Welsh, the opposite of English. From this phrase I learn the word honest which is easy to remember because it is almost the same, and the word calon for heart, and the fact that adjectives come second in Welsh.

www.writersholiday.net

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.