LibriVox readers present 7 versions of “Men of Harlech” by Talhaiarn (1810-1869). Translated by John Oxenford (1820-1877).
This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 16th to September 23rd, 2012.
“Men of Harlech” or “The March of the Men of Harlech” is a song and military march which is traditionally said to describe events during the seven year long siege of Harlech Castle between 1461 and 1468. The music was first published without words in 1794, but it is said to be a much earlier folk air. The song was published in Volume II of the 1862 collection Welsh Melodies with the Welsh lyrics by the Welsh poet John Jones (Talhaiarn). A version translated by John Oxenford was published in “The Songs of Wales” in 1873 with music edited by Brinley Richards. This is the version recorded in this week’s poetry project. (Summary by Wikipedia)
Download locations: mp3 128kb : mp3 64kb : ogg vorbis.
Catalogue pages: LibriVox, Internet Archive.
Zip of the entire book (6.7MB@64kb), featuring all 7 readers of this poem, with a total running time of 13m 56s.
In addition to the readers, this audio book was produced by:
Book Coordinator: Liberty Stump
Meta-Coordinator/Cataloging: TriciaG
Men of Harlech!
Men of Harlech, march to glory,
Victory is hov’ring o’er ye,
Bright eyed freedom stands before ye,
Hear ye not her call?
At your sloth she seems to wonder,
Rend the sluggish bonds asunder,
Let the war cry’s deaf’ning thunder,
Ev’ry foe appal.Echoes loudly waking,
Hill and valley shaking;
‘Till the sound spreads wide around,
The Saxon’s courage breaking;
Your foes on ev’ry side assailing,
Forward press with heart unfailing,
Till invaders learn with quailing,
Cambria ne’er can yield.Thou who noble Cambria wrongest,
Know that freedom’s cause is strongest
Freedom’s courage lasts the longest,
Ending but with death!
Freedom countless hosts can scatter,
Freedom stoutest mail can shatter,
Freedom thickest walls can batter,
Fate is in her breath.See they now are flying!
Dead are heaped with dying!
Over might has triumphed right,
Our land to foes denying;
Upon their soil we never sought them,
Love of conquest hither brought them,
But this lesson we have taught them,
Cambria ne’er can yield.
This week’s poem can be found here.
