Cyfwe is a website for Welsh literature in translation. Its name is composed of two Welsh elements, cyf from cyfieithu (the same as trans in translate), and (g)we, 'web'. It represents our aim to open up the riches of Welsh literature to a worldwide audience through the Web.
Who is Cyfwe?
The site has been established with the help of funding from the European Union. It has its home at the School of European Languages in the University of Wales Swansea, in association with the School MA in literary translation, but we are a broad group from Wales and elsewhere. The following are members of the editorial board:
Professor Dafydd Johnston
Department of Welsh, University of Wales Swansea.
Dr Mererid Hopwood
Arts Council of Wales
Sioned Rowlands
Welsh Literature Abroad
Dr Angharad Price
Department of Welsh, University of Wales Swansea
Jean-Yves Le Disez and Carys Le Disez
Department of English, University of Brest
Dr Sabine Heinz
Celtic Unit, Humboldt University, Berlin
(For full addresses see contact page)
What will Cyfwe do?
The focus will be on contemporary Welsh-language writing, covering all the main literary forms. Some pieces of Welsh writing in English will also be included in order to give a full picture of the literature of contemporary Wales. To launch the site we have chosen a prize-winning poem from the 1998 National Eisteddfod, an extract from a major recent novel, a short story, a literary essay, and some English-language poetry. The site will develop over the coming months as further examples of these and other genres are added.
Translations have been commissioned into a number of European languages, and our intention is to make this a truly multilingual site. All translations can be viewed side-by-side with the original text, and are accompanied by commentary and information on the author. Translators have been invited to provide notes on their work. The site also has background information on the Welsh language and its literature. There are links to other relevant sites which will give more information about publications, organisations and events.
Printing
You are welcome to print one copy of any material on this site for your own use. The procedure to print a text differs slightly depending on what Web browser and/or computer you are using to view the site, but basically the procedure will be similar. Select the text you wish to print by clicking on any part of it, then select 'Print' or 'Print Frame' (on some systems you may also be able to print the desired text by 'right clicking' when you have selected the frame).
For technical reasons it was not possible to put accents on w and y in the Welsh texts. The translations into Greek, Russian, Arabic and Hebrew can only be read by those with the appropriate software.
Copyright is the property of the authors and translators. All rights are reserved.
