Hi. 🙂
I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything yesterday, I had a Zombie day and was way too Zombie, or so I felt.
Sometime at the very beginnings of this blog I showed you a song by Trwynau Coch called Radio Cymru, and I told you that I really like this band, not only because the only one album of them that seems to be available is really good IMO, but also because I have a soft spot for them because of the fact that their vocalist – Rhys harris – is my music crush’s – Gwilym Bowen Rhys – father.
The band doesn’t exist anymore, but they were pretty popular and liked in their era, as one of the first bands making music in Welsh. Their punk sound and humourous, weird lyrics are quite characteristic.
I made numerous trials to understand their lyrics more, as to most songs they’re not available in English anywhere, and with varying success.
As for this one, I can’t even figure out what its title means so far, I only know that wastod is always, or actually, as far as I know, it should be wastad, but they seem to have a lot of fuss between vowels in different dialects in Welsh, so i guess that’s still the same? The only thing I know is that at least in some part, it’s about dancing, and discos, or more exactly about how the person speaking doesn’t like to dance and doesn’t want to go to the disco, in T-shirt and jeans from Tesco, lol… although I may be wrong somewhere and not understand something exactly. The rest of the song I only somewhat understand, some phrases or words, not always enough to get the context out of it. Well, that sounds interesting for me, the more that I myself have a disco related life long aversion as well, you may actually call it a full blown phobia. So much that it really doesn’t matter to me in what I’d go to it in, I just don’t want.
I’ve just stumbled across this blog post as I heard this song for the first time a few days ago, and was trying to find the lyrics online (sadly without success).
I found that spelling of wastad a little odd as well. After some digging around it seems “Tu Fas” is outside, so as far as I can make out “Wastod At Y Tu Fas) is something like “Always on the Outside”
I’ve been trying to decipher the lyrics, there’s loads of words I can’t quite make out, and some where I think I am possibly guessing, but this is what I’ve got so far:
oedd (?) ddim yn hoffi dawnsio
….. unig ac …
… neis yn y cornel
…unig frind yw botel
oedd (?) ddim eisiau mynd y disco
mewn crys T a jins o Tesco
yn yr ysgol, yn y gampfa
…. sy’n (?) heb
ydy dost (?)
…. mynd mas
wastod ar y tu fas
wastod ar y tu fas
………………………..Wranglers
..bydd ti gweld (?) y Stranglers
…. pawb yn chwerthin
…Sy ddim yn cerbyn
oedd (?) ddim eisiau mynd y disco
mewn crys T a jins o Tesco
yn yr ysgol, yn y gampfa
…. sy’n (?) heb (?)
ydy dost (?)
…. mynd mas
wastod ar y tu fas
wastod ar y tu fas
…. hoffen mynd i Top Rank
… dawnsio gyda merch swank
… gweld dan y UV
mae’n gwisgo dillad Woolies
oedd (?) ddim eisiau mynd y disco
mewn crys T a jins o Tesco
yn yr ysgol, yn y gampfa
…. sy’n (?) heb (?)
ydy dost (?)
…. mynd mas
wastod ar y tu fas
wastod ar y tu fas
oedd (?) ddim yn hoffi dawnsio
….. unig ac …
… neis yn y cornel
…unig frind yw botel
oedd (?) ddim eisiau mynd y disco
mewn crys T a jins o Tesco
yn yr ysgol, yn y gampfa
…. sy’n (?) heb (?)
ydy dost (?)
…. mynd mas
wastod ar y tu fas
wastod ar y tu fas
Thi is probably largely wrong, and I’m not convinced about that “cerbyn” as I’m not familiar with that as a Welsh word and can’t find it in a dictionary – I’m wondering if it may be cerbyd, which would make more sense, but it doesn’t quite sound like that, and indeed wouldn’t rhyme with chwerthin.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks a lot for sharing those bits and pieces, it’s greatly appreciated. 🙂 I also recently got to know that tu fas is outside. I guess you’ve made out a bit more of it than I did. As for this verse with “gornel”, I’m pretty sure it is “Rwy’n eistedd yn y gornel”. Indeed, cerbyd would make more sense, but to me it also doesn’t sound like it. To me it doesn’t sound much like cerbyn either though, I think there is some word with th (or maybe f) after the r, no idea what word it could be though. If I’ll get out some more sense of it with time I’ll update this post. 🙂
LikeLike
Hello I’m pretty impressed by how much you’ve understood, Jenny and Eirlys! Are you Welsh speakers? Or learners? I’m a native speaker and of an age to have attended discos where Y Trwynau were playing and even I don’t know all the words!
It should be spelt Wastad and yes it means always at the bottom of the heap!
Rwy ddim isio mynd i’r disgo mewn crysau t a jeans o Tesco
Yn yr ysgol, yn y gampfa= gym
Fi yw’r yn heb Adidas (Ad-is/as!)
Ffaelu fforddio mynd mas = Can’t afford to go out
Wastad ar y tu fas
Rwy’n eistedd yn y gornel
Dwi’n unig ac anesmyth
Can’t remember this line
Fy unig ffrind yw’r botel
Hope this helps!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Diolch yn fawr iawn am hwn, mae’n helpu lot! 🙂 Dwi’n dysgwr Cymraeg o Wlad Pwyl, dwi ‘di bod yn dysgu ers tua pedair blynedd.
Happy to see a Welsh native stop by at my little blog, not a frequent occurrence, haha. It’s good to know Jenny and I weren’t too far off with our guesses. How cool that you had a chance to listen to Y Trwynau live! 🙂
I’ve been able to understand some other small bits of this song over time after the publishing of this post and now thanks to you it makes even more sense.
LikeLike