Greetings

Translated from the Welsh by Joseph P. Clancy

Another year stands by, on tenterhooks,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
An offhand greeting in the offing.

And we remember, as we seal the envelope,
That we’ve not seen each other all year long —
Or seen the landslip in the way we look.

For that, we should be glad and grateful
That like Anatiamaros we stay young
With one another's image still unfurrowed.

Is it this that's civilized in friendship?
New affections, chance companionship,
The turnabout of faces part of the hurly-burly

Of how we live? But when we reconsider
Ask ourselves what sort of life it is
Where we spend a lifetime minding manners

With strangers more than with our friends,
The answer's here, in the corners that hold us —
Kirlian photos, a light pelting rain

Of spirits crossing oh so quietly—
Keeping the daily and the nightly world
Sweetly innocent, from holiday to holiday.

 

 

* a Welsh god who lived to a grand old age but was still still revered by the tribe and those younger than him.