Day 72 - Hawl I Fyw — the Right to Live

Preacher, campaigner for Wales and the Welsh language, and singer-songwriter, Dafydd Iwan is still going strong at 82! Indeed, his popularity across Wales has soared since he led the crowd singing Yma o Hyd, as the Welsh football team made it into the Euros. A year ago he finished touring with his band, but still he preaches, and sings at small gatherings up and down Wales. In the middle of April he joined our Porthcawl Welsh society as the guest speaker.

He regaled us with some of his classics, describing the background to each.

As we came to the end of our evening, before finishing with Yma o Hyd, he explained the background to one of his best known songs. It was the time of the awful famine in Ethiopia. One response had been Live Aid. There were many other responses too. Dafydd Iwan described the way one particular image of a young child staring into the camera had come to haunt him.

A fan of Woody Guthrie, new words came to his mind for one of his songs. He jotted them down. And so was born a song that is still a favourite in Wales. So far, so good. But then Dafydd Iwan looked at us all, and said, simply, ‘And still we see the same picture. Another famine. Another war. But still the same picture a child looking despairingly into a camera.’

He then put his guitar to one side and sang unaccompanied what in that moment was a haunting lament as we all could see in our mind’s eye the picture he had so graphically described.

That was Friday evening.

As I was preparing to take a service up in Maesteg that Sunday morning, I opened an envelope that had, for some unknown reason, lain unopened since before Palm Sunday. In it was a poster and a leaflet summoning us to a week of prayer for the Middle East. It had come from Embrace the Middle East.

The poster had just the picture Dafydd Iwan had described.

Look at the poster, listen to the song, and read the words of the translation I found (unattributed) on the web.

The Right to Live – by Dafydd Iwan

You look at my picture with sympathy;

You ask why this has got to be;

You shed a couple of tears of compassion

And I’m afraid to see tomorrow coming.

But I was born a child to my parents;

And I’ve heard that everyone’s a child of God;

I’m a brother to you and you a brother to me —

Oh why don’t I also have a right to live?

Yeah, I saw the politicians passing by,

Each one shaking their head, so wise, so fair;

And I saw the priest drawing closer

Before passing me by, as I’m no-one of importance.

But I was born a child ...

Oh I was once playing with my friends;

But I saw them going from one to another;

I lost my father one night, and my mum one morning

Which left me by myself.

But I was born a child ...

I heard some talking of a mountain of butter,

And I heard some talking of lakes of milk;

But I know that you, who are Christians

Won’t allow the waste of food and nutrition.

And I was born a child to my parents;

And I’ve heard that everyone’s a child of God;

I’m a brother to you and you a brother to me;

Oh why don’t I also have,

Why don’t I also have,

Why don’t I also have a right to live?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0n55CoA3ps

And now follow the links to Embrace the Middle East and their Seven Days of Prayer for the Middle East, To Keep Hope Alive.

A Prayer from Embrace the Middle East

Almighty God, we turn to you as we witness the rising of conflict and the fear laid upon ordinary lives.

Trusting in your steadfast love, we hold before you our friends and partners across the Middle East, in communities already stretched beyond endurance.

We remember before you all whose hearts are filled with dread today. Surround them with your protection. Be a fortress for those who cannot flee and a shield for those whose work is to heal and to hope.

Open paths for wisdom, restraint, and justice where none seem possible. Give courage to peacemakers and teach us to stand with those who suffer, to pray without ceasing and to hope, even now, in your redeeming love. Amen.

Richard Cleaves