Ode to a Barren Land
Double Bass & Piano
This hauntingly beautiful piece based on the poem, The Winter, by Welsh poet Dafydd Ap Gwilym represents the vast, bleak countryside of North Wales during the harshest season, Winter.
The Winter by Dafydd Ap Gwilym
Across North Wales The snowflakes wander, A swarm of white bees. Over the woods
A cold veil lies.
A load of chalk Bows down the trees.
No undergrowth Without its wool, No field unsheeted; No path is left Through any field; On every stump White flour is milled.
Will someone tell me What angels lift Planks in the flour-loft Floor of heaven Shaking down dust? An angel’s cloak
Is cold quicksilver.
And here below The big drifts blow, Blow and billow Across the heather Like swollen bellies. The frozen foam Falls in fleeces.
Out of my house
I will not stir
For any girl
To have my coat Look like a miller’s Or stuck with feathers Of eider down.
What a great fall Lies on my country!
A wide wall, stretching One sea to the other, Greater and graver Than the sea’s graveyard. When will rain come?