Cardiff
some history
At the start
nothing definite.
The sandy frith
of the river
a fort
a track into the heathland
the reach of the sea
then names
Taf, Ely, Rhymney
Maindy, Crwys Bychan, Cathays
few streets - Shoemaker, Working,
Duck, Worton, Houndemanneby,
the booth-hall, the town cross,
mud flats, boat stays.
In command immigrant merchants
manipulators -
Hugo, Johannes,
Walterus Parvus,
Robertus de Kardif Niger,
Walteri Longi, Alabus,
all foreigners.
This is the Welsh way.
power
Cae
Twc, Coed Yr Hen Wyr,
Maindy
Bach, Carreg Picca,
bilingual officials, ascendant chapels.
Cardiff grows.
Visitors from Bristol
find us short,
gregarious, singers,
drinkers, fish sellers, panhandlers,
street peddlers, beggars,
gargling ruffians
in stovepipe hats.
I need not
remind you that Welsh
is the common vernacular of Cardiff
- Official advice to travelers
There is
no reason why these aboriginals should not be made to speak the
King's English
- Letter
to local paper
King George
is a German
-
Slogan on wall
Then coal
We name our
burgeoning streets
after battles, foreigners,
campaigns, soldiers,
poets, statesmen,
engineers, scientists, metals,
precious stones,
the heavenly bodies -
anything pronounceable by coal owners.
Not yet pastoral England -
Fairwood, Sweet
Briar, Mallard's Reach,
but soon.
Now glass
When the coal
city fails and the brick city crumbles
We build a glass
city with borrowed money.
We close down everything that smells.
We sell shoes, beds and endowment mortgages
from vast shining emporia.
This is not honest toil,
this is sweatless opportunism.
We do it well.
Q: How Welsh
do you feel?
A: We don't.
Summary of answers
to intelligence test:
Wales is near Spain.
Alexander Cordell is a local boxer.
We have a flag with a red dog on it.
Llewelyn ap Gruffydd is a mystery.
There are 52 nightclubs in our city centre.
We've been to them all.
60% of residents
questions
said that Cardiff was not yet
their idea of a Welsh cultural epicentre
5% could not
pronounce epicentre.
The rest thought
they were
still living in Avon.