Ap Huw's Testament*


There are four verses to put down
For the four people in my life,
Father, mother, wife

And the one child. Let me begin
With her of the immaculate brow
My wife; she loves me. I know how.

My mother gave me the breast's milk
Generously, but grew mean after,
Envying me my detached laughter.

My father was a passionate man,
Wrecked after leaving the sea
In her love's shallows. He griesves in me.

What shall I say of my boy,
Tall, fair? He is young yet;
Keep his feet free of the world's net.






* ... title: Son of Huw's Testament;
Ap means "son of" in the Welsh and
Huw is R.S.Thomas's father, who had worked as a sailor
and retired because of his deafness by the time when R.S.
went to the University,
so the son of Huw is R.S. himself.

"Ap Huw's Testament,"
from Poetry for Supper
You can also find this in
COLLECTED POEMS 1945-1990(J.M.Dent, 1993).


background image: R.S.'s chair owned by R.S.Thomas Center at Unversity of Wales, Bangor.
This photo was taken in 2002 by Yoshifum! Nagata.