Name: Battle Islands: Commanders - Battle by Rickyjwebb
Duration: 3 min 2 s
Description: This is the music that I composed for 'Battle Islands: Commanders'

Cân Y Melinydd (The Miller's Song)
Forgotten for over 250 years and never before recorded, this version of 'Can Y Melinydd' is a ballad composed by David Jones of Llanybydder during the American War of Independence. It documents the effect the war was having on people in rural Wales, including rocketing prices and young men being dragged to away to fight to appease the upper classes.

Here's a rough translation:

Dear friends and gentle comrades
I'm asking for your views
About the dying market
In coal and iron ore
And also on the cotton 
From inner Lancashire
There's thousands in hardship
Worrying for many a year

We'll see little Mary, we'll see little Mary
We'll see dear Mary

The answer thousands provide
Good times will not arrive
Until the war has ended
On America's foreign soil
They are so unmerciful
Killing just like fire
The poor they drag to warfare
To please the upper class

Some supernatural order 
Is this as some might say
If so we must be content
With nowhere to lay blame
But this is my true feeling
Though you may call me mad
I say that brotherly love
Is all that needs be had

Cân Y Melinydd
Dyma’r tro cyntaf i’r gân yma gael ei recordio, wedi iddi fynd yn angof am dros 250 o flynyddoedd. Wedi ei chyfansoddi gan David Jones, Llanybydder yn ystod y Rhyfel Annibyniaeth yn America, mae’r fersiwn yma o ‘Cân Y Melinydd’ yn dyst i effaith y rhyfel ar werin cefn gwlad Cymru. Clywn gŵyn am y codiad mewn prisiau ac am hanes y bechgyn ifanc a chafodd eu llusgo i ffwrdd i ymladd er mwyn bodloni dymuniadau’r dosbarthau uchel.

Gyfeillion manwl mwynion 
Rwy'n gofyn beth yw'ch barn 
Ynghylch y fasnach farwaidd 
Ar glo ac ar haearn 
A hefyd ar y cotwm 
O fewn i Lancashire 
Mae miloedd mewn caledi 
Yn poeni ers amser hir 

Welwn ni, welwn ni Mari fach 
Welwn ni, welwn ni Mari fach 
Welwn ni Mari annwyl 

Yr ateb sydd gan filoedd 
Na chawn ddim amser da 
Nes y terfyna'r rhyfel 
Ar dir America 
Y maent mor anrhygarog 
Yn llidiog yno'n lladd 
Y tlawd wnaent lisgo i ryfel 
Er boddio'r uchel radd 

Rhyw deddf goruwchnaturiol 
Yw hyn fel dywed rhai 
Os felly rhaid bodloni 
Heb le i daflu'r bai 
Hyn yw fy meddwl innau 
Os gall fy nghalw'n ffol 
Rwy'n dweud mae cariad brawdol 
Sydd braidd rhy bell ar ôl

Cân Y Melinydd (The Miller's Song)

This is the music that I composed for 'Battle Islands: Commanders'

Battle Islands: Commanders - Battle

Rickyjwebb

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