In 2007 The National Library of Wales celebrated its one hundredth birthday! On 19 March 1907 King Edward VII signed the Royal Charter establishing the Library in Aberystwyth. Since then it has grown into one of the world's great libraries, home to the historic treasures of Wales and to recorded knowledge of all kinds in almost all media.

 

To celebrate the occasion the Library commissioned two poems, one in Welsh and one in English, written by Gwyneth Lewis, one of Wales's leading poets and our National Poet in 2005-06.

 

 

Centenary Greetings from The National Library of Wales

 

We call, as one lighthouse hails another

by sight, through the electronic dark.

Digital seeds stir in our nation’s ark.

Hidden most safely is the DNA

of dreams in vellum, which the warble fly

has tasted, so knows where all our bodies lie.

 

Ideas’ spores are spread by the eyes

of greedy readers who, randy as bees,

nudge the dusty interstices

of images until they pollinate

towering pistils. Some metaphors bloom

only once a century in tradition’s gloom.

 

Some books, like poodles, are sent to be groomed

in the binding department, till their spines

are tongues again and can speak their mind.

The hardest place to be is here,

we need to imagine it and require

a library’s wormholes, its infinite doors.

 

 

Canmlwyddiant Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru

 

Ie, silffoedd o lyfrau, ond mae hon yn ardd

gyda hadau syniadau’n dianc fel chwyn

os nad yw ceidwad y llyfrau’n llym,

yn eu cloi’n eu celloedd, fel bo DNA

ein gwyddorau’n egino. Yna, fel gwenyn

 

bydd darllenwyr aflonydd yn cywain paill

o siambrau petalau ysgarlad fel serch.

Mae rhai delweddau’n blodeuo prin un

waith bob canrif. Dyma ryw

llyfryddiaeth. Dyma arch

 

ein breuddwydion. Dyma benglog Brân –

sgrin cyfrifiadur newydd sbon –

yn gwrando’n astud ar drydar pur

drudwy digidol trwy wifrau cân,

yn dathlu entrychion y foment hon.

 

Gwyneth Lewis

 

Poems composed to celebrate the Library's Centenary 19 March, 2007