Martha Jones was my Ynys Môn-born great grandmother and here’s her song Cân Martha. It was the first demo track we worked on together to live-record in the studio, and was released on June 18th as the soundtrack to this grainy video-doc made by filmmaker João Paulo Simoes, screened to support the debut performance of the first suite of four work-in-progress Songs from the Tin Tabernacl by the project singer-songwriters & players. It premiered as part of Sheffield’s Migration Matters Festival 2024. My earlier May 22nd post explores more of the song’s background and composition process..
Here are the song’s Welsh verses with English translation:
I Ruddlan Bach, fe aeth fy mam i fyw / Gadael mynyddoedd Eifionydd ar ôl (My mother went to live in Rhuddlan Bach / Leaving the mountains of Eifionydd behind) Ond hawliwyd yr Arglwydd ei ddegwm a’i dir / Er mwyn tyrchu am galchfaen, y garreg fwyn ddu (But the lord claimed his tithe and his land / To dig for limestone, the soft black rock)
Symudon ymlaen at Henffordd Graig / Ar y ffordd tua Phentraeth, y gŵr a’r wraig (They moved on to Henffordd Graig / On the road towards Pentraeth, the husband and wife) Cyn ei adael yn adfail, y tân a’r mwg / wedi llosgi pob carreg, eu chwalu yn llwyr (Before leaving it a ruin, the fire and the smoke / had burnt every stone, shattered it all)
Fi oedd Martha, y 10fed anedig / Yn chwarae yng nghaeau Iago a’i garreg (I was Martha, the 10th born / Playing in the fields of Iago and his Stone) Ymlaen i Landudno, yna Caernarfon / Cwrdd fy Menai, ei inc ac ei sermon (I went on to Llandudno, and then to Caernarfon / Where I met my Menai, his ink and his sermon)
Cludais fy Meibl ar draws y ffin / I deras Woods End, er mwyn Duw, er mwyn dyn (I took my Bible over the border / To a terrace in Woods End, for God and for man) Y poen a’r gan, yn ddwfn yn fy mron / Yn gaeth i’r tŷ teras, yn gaeth i’r wlad hon (The pain and the song, deep in my breast / Trapped in this terrace house, trapped in this country)
VIDEO: They Layed Me in a House of Sorrow: Martha's Song (Cân Martha)