The Dead Children

The Dead Children Waldo Williams (bio) Translated by David Lloyd (bio) Keywords poetry, Waldo Williams, translation, David Lloyd, death, youth, mother, nations, desperation Translated from Welsh by David Lloyd Here, the bodies of children. They died at dusk.Instead of bread, fed stones from the sling.Kept from shelter until their bodies stiffened.The sun failed to keep them warm.And she, the greatest sun, could not love them,because of the stones, because of the serpent. See how the skin is tough.See the hips and knees, bulging.How was their plea for "bread, mother" not heard?Their dull eyes sought the breast to suck.She sang to them, hopelessly, long and late,against the unseen bite of the serpent. They died desperate. Here, the bodies of children. From all nations. So many.The giant serpent invades each country as silent as a corpse,so cold it freezes air.Tell me, what on this green earth gave it the right?From an insane star, the lunatic moon: "Need! Need!"Woe to those who ignite the star that damns the earth. End Page 13 Waldo Williams waldo williams (1904–1971) "is considered by many to be the twentieth century's most astonishingly original poet in the Welsh language," according to The New Companion to the Literature of Wales. Williams was a passionate advocate for the continued vitality of the Welsh language and Welsh literature and culture, threatened by absorption into an Anglicized, monolingual British state. These poems are from his collection Dail Pren (Leaves of the Tree, 1956), described by John Davies in A History of Wales (Penguin, 1990) as "the most outstanding book published" in Welsh since World War II. David Lloyd david lloyd is the author of eleven books, including four poetry collections: The Everyday Apocalypse, The Gospel According to Frank, Warriors, and The Body's Compass, forthcoming from Salmon Poetry. His poems and stories have appeared in many journals including Crab Orchard Review, Denver Quarterly, and Virginia Quarterly Review. In 2000, he received the Poetry Society of America's Robert H. Winner Memorial Award. He has received two Fulbright Scholar awards: in 2001 at Bangor University, Wales, and in 2021 at Cardiff University, Wales. He directs the Creative Writing Program at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY. Copyright © 2024 The Massachusetts Review, Inc