Parch by Menna Elfyn, trans. Emma Baines, Gillian Clarke, Menna Elfyn, Robert Minhinnick and R.S. Thomas
Bloodaxe Books
Published 23rd October 2025.
Menna Elfyn is the best-known, most travelled and most translated of all Welsh-language poets - until now writing exclusively in Welsh. Her work has been translated into English and other languages by leading poets from around the world. Following many years of campaigning, Menna Elfyn is moving towards her own sense of resolution as the Welsh language is now accepted and respected as an official language in Wales. In this book - for the first time - she has translated or written many of the original poems in English, now describing herself as ”˜a proud bilingual’. Other poems in the book are translated by Emma Baines, Gillian Clarke, Robert Minhinnick and R.S. Thomas. The poems in Parch offer a voice to those whose liberty or dignity have been undermined, seeking religious, linguistic and cultural tolerance for all, and not shying away from the effects of (in)humanity on our environment, histories and lives. In Welsh, ”˜parch’ (the ”˜ch’ is guttural) simply means respect. Menna Elfyn’s collection explores the many ways in which respect can be expressed, as well as how our world can so often feel parched of simple kindnesses. She has published two dual-language retrospectives of her work, one covering collection from 1978 to 1975 in 1995 (from Gomer) and the other 1995-2007 in 2007 (from Bloodaxe), followed by dual language editions of her later poetry from Bloodaxe in 2012 and 2017. She was, until 2016, Creative Director in the School of Cultural Studies at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, where she is Emerita Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing. She lives in Carmarthen.
Menna Elfyn is the best-known, most travelled and most translated of all Welsh-language poets - until now writing exclusively in Welsh. Her work has been translated into English and other languages by leading poets from around the world. Following many years of campaigning, Menna Elfyn is moving towards her own sense of resolution as the Welsh language is now accepted and respected as an official language in Wales. In this book - for the first time - she has translated or written many of the original poems in English, now describing herself as ”˜a proud bilingual’. Other poems in the book are translated by Emma Baines, Gillian Clarke, Robert Minhinnick and R.S. Thomas. The poems in Parch offer a voice to those whose liberty or dignity have been undermined, seeking religious, linguistic and cultural tolerance for all, and not shying away from the effects of (in)humanity on our environment, histories and lives. In Welsh, ”˜parch’ (the ”˜ch’ is guttural) simply means respect. Menna Elfyn’s collection explores the many ways in which respect can be expressed, as well as how our world can so often feel parched of simple kindnesses. She has published two dual-language retrospectives of her work, one covering collection from 1978 to 1975 in 1995 (from Gomer) and the other 1995-2007 in 2007 (from Bloodaxe), followed by dual language editions of her later poetry from Bloodaxe in 2012 and 2017. She was, until 2016, Creative Director in the School of Cultural Studies at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, where she is Emerita Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing. She lives in Carmarthen.
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