Llyfr Newydd | New Publication: Elsewhere Where Else / Lle Arall Ble Arall

Mae casgliad newydd o gerddi am Gymru ac am India, Elsewhere Where Else / Lle Arall Ble Arall, nawr ar werth. Cyfrol amlieithog yw hi a luniwyd ar y cyd gen i a Sampurna Chattarji, un o feirdd Saesneg mwyaf blaenllaw India, a chyfrol sy'n benllanw ar gyfnod maith o gydweithio rhyngom. Yng ngeiriau'r cyflwyniad:

A new collection of poetry, Elsewhere Where Else / Lle Arall Ble Arall, is now for sale. This multilingual collection contains poetry by both myself and Sampurna Chattarji, one of India's foremost English-language authors, and is the high point of a long partnership, as explained in the book's introduction:

This book marks the culmination of a partnership in poetry that spans seven years and two countries some 5000 miles apart. A journey that began in 2011 as part of a poetry translation workshop at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre in north Wales has pulled into its orbit places as far removed from each other as Aberystwyth and Bombay/Mumbai, as well as Thiruvananthapuram, Porth-cawl, Cardiff, London, Kolkata, Swansea and Shantiniketan. We have both been afforded a fleeting, deeply enriching glimpse of each other's home towns, cities and nations. And in turn gained an insight into those things and places that we believed to be most familiar to us: streets, communities, homes, poems, even words themselves.

Mae'r casgliad yn cynnwys adrannau o gerddi yn Gymraeg, yn Saesneg ac mewn Bangla am Mumbái, am Aberystwyth ac am Kolkata, ynghyd â cherddi ymryson/kobir lorai, adran o gyfieithiadau, nodiadau ac atodiadau diddorol sy'n olrhain ein trafodaethau am y byd a'r betws ar hyd y blynyddoedd. Mae un o fy ngherddi Saesneg, 'Two Parched Poets', ar gael i'w darllen ar y wefan hon.

Cyhoeddwyd y gyfrol gan Poetrywala fel rhan o gyfres o gyfrolau gan feirdd o Gymru ac o India ym mhrosiect Cysylltiadau Barddonol Llenyddiaeth ar Draws Ffiniau (a ariannwyd gan British Council Cymru a Chelfyddydau Rhyngwladol Cymru). Dyma'r pedair cyfrol arall yn y gyfres:

• Aerial Roots gan Subhro Bandopadhyay a Nicky Arscott;
• Open Me My Shadow gan Avner Pariat a Rhys Trimble;
• Interversions gan Nia Davies a Mamta Sagar;
• A Different Water / Dŵr Arall gan Anitha Thampi a Siân Melangell Dafydd.

​Am fwy o wybodaeth am yr hyn y bues i a Sampurna'n ei wneud ar y prosiect, yn cynnwys casgliad o luniau a phum podlediad yn trafod hanes ein hymweliadau â Kolkata, ag Aberystwyth ac â'r Eisteddfod Genedlaethol ym Môn y llynedd, clicia fan hyn.

Ddiwedd Ionawr fe es i'n ôl i India ar gyfer rhan olaf y prosiect, sef er mwyn lansio'r gyfrol a chymryd rhan mewn digwyddiadau yn Kolkata, yng ngŵyl lenyddiaeth enfawr Jaipur (darllena erthygl o bapur newydd Live Mint fan hyn) ac yna yn Delhi (ceir erthygl fan hyn o India Today). I weld fideo ohonof i a Sampurna'n darllen ein gwaith yn Jaipur, clicia fan hyn.

Bu'r daith a'r prosiect ar ei hyd yn brofiad arbennig iawn – diolch i'r beirdd ac i'r cyfeillion lu a fu'n rhan o'r antur, ac yn arbennig i Alexandra Büchler ac, wrth gwrs, i Sampurna.

The book includes sections of poetry in Welsh, English and Bangla on Mumbai, Aberystwyth and Kolkata, as well as a series of ymryson/kobir lorai debate poems, a section of poems in translation, notes and appendices that trace our conversations over the years about almost everything in between. One of my English-language poems, 'Two Parched Poets', can be read on this website.

The collection is published by Poetrywala and is one of a series of poetry collections by poets from Wales and India produced as part of the Poetry Connections project by Literature Across Frontiers (supported by British Council Cymru and Wales Arts International). These are the four other books in the series:​

• Aerial Roots by Subhro Bandopadhyay and Nicky Arscott;
• Open Me My Shadow by Avner Pariat and Rhys Trimble;
• Interversions by Nia Davies and Mamta Sagar;
• A Different Water / Dŵr Arall by Anitha Thampi and Siân Melangell Dafydd.

For more on what Sampurna and I got up to on the project, including a collection of photographs and five podcasts about our time in Kolkata, Aberystwyth and at the National Eisteddfod on Anglesey last year, click here.

In January I returned to India for the last leg, namely to launch the book and to take part in events in Kolkata, at the Jaipur Lit Fest (read an article on the Live Mint website here) and lastly in Delhi (article here from India Today). A video of Sampurna and I reading our work in Jaipur is available here.

The tour and indeed the whole project from start to finish was a wonderful experience – thanks to the all the poets and friends that took part in the adventure, and especially to Alexandra Büchler and, of course, to Sampurna.