A few weeks ago I
attended the funeral of a member of our church who, with her husband, had moved
to our town from Cardiff a few years ago; the funeral was thus a meeting of
cultures as well as a celebration of her life.
The final piece of music was a recording of Cerys Matthews singing Calon
Lân. Inevitably, it seemed, some in
the congregation joined in with the chorus and I have since tried
to discover why it’s such an emotive song.
So deeply is it
embedded within the Welsh culture that it could easily be believed that it’s
far older than is actually the case. The
words were written in 1891, allegedly on a cigarette packet, by a poet known
for excessive drinking, who would sit in the King’s Head pub in his home town
of Treboeth and exchange verses for ale (‘poems for pints’).
Daniel James was born
on 23 January 1848, one of five children; he became known as the ‘bad boy’ of Mynyddbach Chapel in Swansea. He worked at Morriston
Dyffryn steelworks, and later at a tinplate works. When that closed, he moved to the Cynon
Valley. Here he was employed at a
succession of three coal mines until, through ill health, he left the mines at
the age of 68 and returned to live with his daughter in Morriston and died on
16 March 1920. In later life he used the
bardic name ‘Gwyrosydd’ (Man of the Moors), which appears on his tombstone in
the Mynyddbach Chapel graveyard.
The tune was written
on James’s invitation by a younger man, John Hughes. He was born in 1872 at Pen y Bryn, Pembrokeshire and had already
written ‘Cwm Rhondda’ for William Williams’ great hymn ‘Guide me O
thou great Redeemer’. The
Irish-American writer Sean Curnyn claims that the combination of James’s syllables
and Hughes’s notes results in something very profound and able to affect the
emotions with absolutely no idea of what the words mean. Little wonder, then, that it is sung in
churches and chapels, at eisteddfodau, rugby and football matches and in stadiums
and pubs across the country wherever Welshmen – and women – gather.
So much for the tune. What about the words? What is it about the words of one of the most
diversely sung songs in the world - although rarely, if ever,
sung in English - that strikes directly to the hearts of Welshmen everywhere? It's not the land itself; that has its own song, 'Land of My Fathers'. And it's not the brave feats of Welsh heroes of the past like Owain Glyndŵr. Here’s
a link to Katherine Jenkins’ recording, useful because it shows an English translation
as the Welsh words are being sung. What, then, do those words have to say to us today?
In December my regular
Bible readings featured Peter’s second letter and I found a number of thoughts there
that echoed the singular and fundamental message of Calon Lân (A Pure Heart). The letter was written when Peter realised
that he was close to death (1:13-15), and it has thus been described as his ‘last
will & testament’. Peter exhorted
the church to accept the teaching of the Prophets (among which he probably
included the early Christian writers such as St Paul (3:15-16)) and to reject attempts
by false teachers to undermine the belief that Jesus would return.
Modern Christians
tend to understand and interpret the Bible in ways that are determined by their own traditions and persuasions but we
can find common ground in understanding that, through it, God speaks to each of
us in the context of our own experience and location. Whatever that context might be, it will
include a variety of ‘false teachings’ that we must discern and resist.
The essential need,
Peter says, is for spiritual maturity, recognising that, through our knowledge
of Him, God has given us everything we need for a godly life (1:3). Peter gives us a list of key qualities that we
should add to a basic faith: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverence,
godliness, mutual affection and love.
John Wesley referred to 'means of grace', and expounded (simplified?) the
list as ‘engagement with the Bible, prayer, fellowship, spending time in
silence and doing acts of mercy and kindness'.
As he teaches about
the danger to Christians of false teachings, Peter expresses his concern for
the purity of the church. Pure is the word
most translators have chosen for the Welsh (g)lân. It’s a word for which it’s difficult to
find an exact English equivalent; other words offered by Google’s translator
inlcude ‘clean, complete, utter, holy, spotless, dear and fair’.
The message purveyed
by these false teachers comes in modern ways to modern Christians, but is essentially the same
as ever. It is a message of
permissiveness, the offer of present pleasure, material possessions and the
complete denial of the existence of sin.
Peter describes the futility of this permissive freedom as a spring that
is found to be dry (2:17). In his first
two lines, Daniel James writes, ’Nid wy’n gofyn bywyd moethus, Awr y byd na’i
berlau mân’ (‘I don’t ask for a luxurious life, the world’s gold or its fine
pearls’) and in the second verse he acknowledges that, ‘Pe dymunwn olud bydol, Chwim
adenydd iddo sydd’ (‘If I wished for worldly treasures, on swift wings they fly
away.’)
It has been suggested
that Calon Lân is neither a hymn nor a spiritual song; why then should it have such a strong emotional appeal? The third
verse is a complete and constant prayer for the spiritual maturity that Peter encourages
in his letter, ‘Hwyr a bore fy nymuniad Gwyd i’r nef ar adain cân Ar i Dduw, er
mwyn fy Ngheidwad, Roddi i mi galon lân.’ (‘Evening and morning, my wish,
rising to heaven on the wing of song, is for God, for the sake of my Saviour,
to give me a pure heart.’) for, as the chorus repeats, 'Dim ond calon lân all ganu, Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos.' ('None but a pure heart
can sing, sing in the day, sing in the night.')
What songs bring you
that ‘back-of-the-neck’ tingle of emotion?
Sources:
Curnyn,
Sean: The Cinch Review, 23.5.2013
Felinfach.com
Higgs,
Gareth: comments on 2 Peter (Scripture Union: Word Live, December 2019)
Sotejeff-Wilson,
Kate: Found in Translation, 6.7.2016
Walesonline.co.uk,
11.4.2019
