St David's Day, Sospan Fach and an Heroic Cat

To the more culturally aware of you it will come as no surprise when I say it's St David's Day today. I hope you are wearing your leek with humility. Apparently it was a favourite of Dewi Sant himself, who ate very frugally.

Today I sat through a Saint David's Day concert in which our youngest featured. You know the kind, where the parents are more annoying that the little monkeys on the stage, as they chat through parts, their phones ring and bleep and even (and I was mildly shocked) got up to leave once their offspring had done their part. Honest.

As they sang and performed surrounded by Welsh flags and even an Owain Glyndwr banner I got to thinking of past concerts I've sat through and then way further back (could this be circa the Boer War?) to St David's Day concerts I took part in.

Then the assembled chilblains in front of me started singing Sospan Fach, and like some nutty professor I was winging my way back into the 1970s. Not only had we sung Sospan Fach for St David's Day, but a few of us had acted out the song.

To my knowledge there weren't any Hollywood scouts around on the day, and if there were they missed my masterpiece as "the cat."

Yes, even at that early age (I guess I was 7 or 8?) my potential for playing domiciled felines was seen. Who knows, perhaps if hand held video cameras were invented I may have been a You Tube hit and whisked off to star in some blockbuster? Probably a good job then that they weren't. As Galadriel said when offered the ring by Frodo, 'I shall remain Galadriel, go into the West and fade' (or words to that effect).

Still, the fact that this was a small school affair in Marlborough Road Junior School, did not stop me playing the part. Like someone in the modern media world of wanna-be pop stars might say: I was 'on a journey.' Indeed, 'I gave it 110%.' I might even go so far as to say 'I gave it my heart and my soul.'

So much so that Graham Newton, who played little Johnny (surely an inferior role?) complained bitterly when I actually scratched his face as I played the role of the cat. I believe some actors are paid millions to do their 'method acting' and yet here I was, on the mean streets of 70s Cardiff (well, in school anyway), giving it my all, immersing myself in the role, actually being the cat and Graham Newton complained! Such ingratitude.

Clearly his muse had not moved him to be little Johnny. Then he could have celebrated the scratch! Worn it as a badge of honour. He was little Johnny, this was his scratch. He had faced up to the cat and come away with his life. Oh how rich would his life be then? Having played the part to such a degree and now... now he was a survivor! The Titanic in 1912, the Blitz of 1940, and Sospan Fach of 1977 or 78. He would have been part of a proud tradition, feted to this day and a regular in the Sunday supplements.

But no. Perhaps he didn't have the foresight. He gave up his thespian future and the glories of the world, when he cried and complained. Imagine. We had brought Sospan Fach to life in that school hall (OK, there were no flames and indeed no actual baby), but we had done the unimaginable! We had brought the reality to the assembled masses. Perhaps his tears were tears of joy for what we had achieved? Perhaps his complaint was really that the other effects were two dimensional by comparison? And yet at the time I thought I clearly heard him complain that 'Gareth scratched me.'

Perhaps I misheard in all the emotion of the moment, as the adrenaline flowed with all those sospans about, or like Hillary Clinton he had "misspoke" and meant to ask why the others weren't fully in character like the fabulous cat who has truly scratched him?

Maybe we will never know. Maybe we don't deserve to know.

Then suddenly I was back in the present clapping the tiny terrors who had finished their rendition of Sospan Fach. And sad to say, not a single face had been scratched.

Kids today! They just don't seem to care.

Happy St David's Day!



P.S. I always thought it was Sospan Fach, not Sosban Fach, and have seen it spelt both ways. Intriguing...


Sospan Fach (scroll down to see English translation):

Welsh

Mae bys Meri-Ann wedi brifo,

A Dafydd y gwas ddim yn iach.

Mae'r baban yn y crud yn crio,

A'r gath wedi sgramo Joni bach.

Sosban fach yn berwi ar y tân,

Sosban fawr yn berwi ar y llawr,

A'r gath wedi sgramo Joni bach.

Dai bach y sowldiwr,

Dai bach y sowldiwr,

Dai bach y sowldiwr,

A gwt ei grys e mas.

Mae bys Meri-Ann wedi gwella,

A Dafydd y gwas yn ei fedd;

Mae'r baban yn y crud wedi tyfu,

A'r gath wedi huno mewn hedd.

Sosban fach yn berwi ar y tân

Sosban fawr yn berwi ar y llawr

A'r gath wedi huno mewn hedd.

Dai bach y sowldiwr,

Dai bach y sowldiwr,

Dai bach y sowldiwr,

A gwt ei grys e mas.

Aeth hen Fari Jones i Ffair y Caerau

I brynu set o lestri de;

Ond mynd i'r ffos aeth Mari gyda'i llestri

Trwy yfed gormod lawer iawn o 'de'

Sosban fach yn berwi ar y tân

Sosban fawr yn berwi ar y llawr

A'r gath wedi huno mewn hedd.

English (literal translation)

Mary-Ann has hurt her finger,

And David the servant is not well.

The baby in the cradle is crying,

And the cat has scratched little Johnny.

A little saucepan is boiling on the fire,

A big saucepan is boiling on the floor,

And the cat has scratched little Johnny.

Little Dai the soldier,

Little Dai the soldier,

Little Dai the soldier,

And his shirt tail is hanging out.

Mary-Ann's finger has got better,

And David the servant is in his grave;

The baby in the cradle has grown up,

And the cat is 'asleep in peace'.

A little saucepan is boiling on the fire,

A big saucepan is boiling on the floor,

And the cat is 'asleep in peace'.

Little Dai the soldier,

Little Dai the soldier,

Little Dai the soldier,

And his shirt tail is hanging out.

Old Mary Jones went to the fair in Caerau,

To buy a tea set;

But Mary and her teacups ended up in a ditch,

Through the consumption of rather too much "tea".

A little saucepan is boiling on the fire,

A big saucepan is boiling on the floor,

And the cat is 'asleep in peace'.