Sosban Fach - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sosban Fach is a traditional Welsh folk song. It is one of the best-known and most often sung songs in the Welsh language.

The song catalogues the troubles of a harassed housewife. The song is mostly associated with the rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

club Llanelli RFC

Llanelli RFC

Llanelli Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club founded in 1875 and its senior team is one of the leading club sides in Wales. The club began the 2008-09 season at their historic home ground of Stradey Park in Llanelli, but moved in November 2008 to the new Parc y Scarlets in adjacent...

and, more recently, the Scarlets regional rugby side. The association derives from Llanelli's

Llanelli

Llanelli , the largest town in both the county of Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed , Wales, sits on the Loughor estuary on the West Wales coast, approximately west-north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. The town is famous for its proud rugby...

tin plating

Tinning

Tinning is the process of thinly coating sheets of wrought iron or steel with tin, and the resulting product is known as tinplate. It is most often used to prevent rust....

industry, which used to tin-plate steel saucepans and other kitchen utensils as a cheap supply to the British public. During the final years of Stradey Park

Stradey Park

Stradey Park was a rugby union stadium located near the centre of the town of Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It was the home of the Scarlets region and Llanelli RFC rugby teams. The stadium was a combination of seating and standing with a total capacity of 10,800...

, the former ground of Llanelli RFC and the Scarlets, the goalposts were adorned with Scarlet saucepans as a tribute to the town's history; the utensils have been transferred to the clubs' new ground, Parc y Scarlets

Parc y Scarlets

Parc y Scarlets is a rugby union stadium in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, that opened in November 2008 as the new home of the Scarlets and Llanelli RFC. The ground replaced Stradey Park, the home of Llanelli's rugby teams for almost 130 years...

. Also, the Scarlets' official magazine is titled Sosban.

This song is alluded to in the book Howl's Moving Castle
Howl's Moving Castle
Howl's Moving Castle is a young adult fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones, first published in 1986. It won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and was named an ALA Notable Book for both children and young adults. In 2004 it was adapted as an Academy Award-nominated animated film by Hayao...

by Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Jones was a British writer, principally of fantasy novels for children and adults, as well as a small amount of non-fiction...

. It is also used as background music in The Goon Show

The Goon Show

The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...

episode The Mighty Wurlitzer, with one character telling another, "I've come to bring your saucepan back." The Welsh rock band Man

Man (band)

Man are a rock band from South Wales whose style is a mixture of West Coast psychedelia, progressive rock, blues and country-rock. Formed in 1968 as a reincarnation of Welsh rock harmony group ‘’The Bystanders’’, Man are renowned for the extended jams in their live performances, and having had...

during the 1970s sometimes brought the Gwalia Male Voice Choir on stage to sing the song during shows. In the Steptoe & Son episode The Lead Man Cometh Harold Steptoe says "Saucepan vach and all that" in an attempt to speak Welsh.

Lyrics

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,

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,

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,

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,

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'.

When sung slowly, the melody can deceive non-speakers of Welsh into thinking the song is a hymn than rather than a folk song.

Variations

This song has been adopted by the fans of the rugby region, the Llanelli Scarlets. Many English variations can now be heard in the stands during rugby matches.

After Llanelli beat a touring New Zealand side in November 1972, a new English chorus could be heard:

Who beat the All Blacks,

Who beat the All Blacks?

Good old Sosban fach.

Other variations include the following.

Who beat the Leicester Tigers?

Good old Dafydd James

Dafydd James

Dafydd Rhys James is a former Welsh international rugby union footballer who plays on the wing or at centre. He toured with the British and Irish Lions in 2001. He has earned 45 caps for Wales and three for the British & Irish Lions...

Dafydd James refers to a player who scored the winning points in that game, now the top try scorer in Heineken Cup history.

External links

Live performance here :

http://www.sing4wales.com/saesneg/?page_id=10

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.