Language and Music

 

It’s no surprise that I recognise it 

whenever I hear it spoken

like I did that Boxing Day 

at M&S in Bath, though I hadn’t 

heard it for years, and couldn’t 

pick out a word - diolch, diawn,

and not at that time of day nostar.

 

My dad thought it was Polish

but I knew it to be Welsh,

for I used to listen to it spoken

every day in the shops, on the bus,

in Sospan Fach. But it’s a mystery to me

how just recently, whenever Monteverdi

comes on the radio unannounced

 

or I tune in half way through,

somehow I guess it is him 

and guess right as I learn

when the music ends

or from the text on the screen

or by saying to my phone

What’s this song? 

 

The only tune I know is Pur Ti Miro, 

perhaps not in fact written by him.

He’s on none of my CDs 

or old tapes. With other composers

I often guess wrong.

What does this reveal about me

except how long I've listened to Radio 3?