Tudalen:Llythyrau Goronwy Owen.djvu/128

yourself in particular. I gave it a free translation on purpose to avoid that crampt stiffness that is unavoidable in a verbatim translation. I need not observe to you the inconveniency of. verbatim translations; I make no doubt but you, as well as myself, have observed the shamefull barbarisms, and harsh metaphors, &c, that are but too visible in some illtranslated Acts of Parliament, &c, and can be attributed to no other cause. You know there are many Metaphors, Phrases, &c, that are familiar enough, and not without their beauty in English, which in Welsh, would make a monstrous & shocking figure, and so on the contrary. For instance, a Field of Knowledge, does well enough in the English; but he must have more than common knack at guessing, that could find out the sense or meaning of Maes (or Cae) o Wybodaeth; & I don't think that Ager, &c. Scientia would sound much better. Cynt y gwyddid pa beth yw Gardd o Foron yn y Lladin cystal ar Gymraeg. I hope however that this present Translation is intelligible to all that understand the Language, & that there is nothing in it, that is not agreeable to the property of the British Idiom. I am not so vain as to think it has any merit; but I dare affirm that if I had recourse to my Dictionary for every word, it would have been worse; as a proof of this I would recommend the experiment, to be made on one Paragraph only. There may be other Orthographical faults in it notwithstanding all my care which I beg you would be so good as to correct in the perusal. My invariable rule in that respect was, never to double a Consonant, when I thought a single one would do as well, as in genym, cymeryd, &c: for I think we have already too many double ones, which we must use unavoidably, as long as we make use of the present Characters & Orthography.—Bellach am yr Enwau dyrys chwedl y Bobl. Mae Hynafiaeth yn ddiddadl cystal gair am Antiquity, nad rhaid mo'i well; ac am hynny, minnau a gymerais gennad i alw Antiquary yn Hynafiaethydd, a gobeithio na bu'm yn rhy hy. Mi allaswn ei alw'n Anticwariad, ond, pe gwnaethwn, pa sut a fuasai i mi wynebu i atteb am yr hyn a ddywedpwyd yna, sef "Bod yr Iaith, heb gymmorth dim geiriau dieithr, yn adrodd yn gyflawn holl ddychymmygiadau 'r meddwl?" Dyna'r