Caniadau (John Morris-Jones)

“Henaint ni ddaw ei hunan”;—daw ag och
    Gydag ef, a chwynfan,
Ac anhunedd maith weithian,
A huno maith yn y man.

As a scholar and linguist, John Morris-Jones (1864-1929) is one of the most important figures of any period in Welsh literature and played a vital role in the renaissance in Welsh poetry at the turn of the twentieth century.

Although his own poetry is considered less important than his work in other fields, Caniadau, the only volume of poems he published, was extremely influential in its day and a key part of his wider campaign to improve linguistic and poetic standards amongst his fellow Welsh. It includes famous lyrics like 'Cwyn y Gwynt' (the Wind's Complaint) as well as enlynion and awldau. He was also a skilled translator of poetry written in other languages, and this also forms an important part of Caniadau, incluyding ‘Verses by Omar Khayyâm’, a rare example of a translation into Welsh of a literary work written in a non-European language.