Free traditional Welsh song printable
Dacw Mam yn Dwad: Welsh Lyrics, English Translation and A4 Poster
Dacw Mam yn Dwad is a memorable traditional Welsh children’s song filled with curious countryside images. This free bilingual poster presents the Welsh verse with a close English meaning for families, Welsh learners, nurseries and primary classrooms.
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What does Dacw Mam yn Dwad mean?
The title means approximately “There is mother coming” or “Look, mother is coming”. The verse presents a chain of surprising domestic and farmyard pictures: mother approaches a white stone with butter in her apron and flour on her head; a cow calls for her calf in the cowshed; and, in a delightfully impossible ending, the calf is on the other side playing a banjo.
The English wording supplied here is a new literal translation intended to help learners follow those images. It is not designed to fit the traditional melody syllable for syllable. Like many orally transmitted Welsh nursery songs, Dacw Mam yn Dwad exists in several versions. Some begin at a white stile rather than a white stone, and other versions continue into additional comic lines.
Traditional Welsh verse
Dacw mam yn dwad
Wrth y garreg wen,
Menyn yn ei ffedog,
A blawd ar ei phen;
Mae’r fuwch yn y beudy
Yn brefu am y llo,
A’r llo yr ochr arall
Yn chwarae banjo.
Literal English translation
There is mother coming
By the white stone,
Butter in her apron,
And flour on her head;
The cow is in the cowshed,
Calling for the calf,
And the calf on the other side
Is playing a banjo.
Welsh vocabulary from the song
| Welsh | English | Learning prompt |
|---|---|---|
| dacw | there is / there you can see | Point towards something at a distance. |
| mam | mother / mum | Say the word slowly together. |
| carreg wen | white stone | Find a pale stone or draw one. |
| menyn | butter | Name foods that might contain butter. |
| ffedog | apron | Pretend to tie an apron. |
| blawd | flour | Mime mixing ingredients in a bowl. |
| buwch | cow | Make a gentle cow sound. |
| llo | calf | Match the adult animal to its young. |
| beudy | cowshed | Build a small shelter using blocks. |
How to use this Welsh song printable
Introduce the rhyme as a miniature picture story. Read each pair of lines and ask children what they imagine. The scenes do not need to be realistic: their strangeness is part of the fun. Children may especially enjoy predicting what the calf is doing before the final line is revealed.
For EYFS or Foundation Learning, assign a simple action to each key word. Point into the distance for dacw, pat an imaginary apron for ffedog, make horns with two fingers for buwch and pretend to strum for banjo. Repeat the same actions each time so children begin to connect movement with Welsh vocabulary.
For KS1 music and poetry, clap the steady beat while speaking the verse. Ask pupils to notice the sound pattern at the ends of wen and phen, then llo and banjo. They can invent another funny farmyard line orally without changing the traditional verse printed on the poster.
A useful rhyme for bilingual classroom discussion
This song offers more than a list of translated nouns. It encourages children to follow a sequence, visualise a setting and talk about an unexpected ending. Teachers can use the pictures to explore farms, animal families, food preparation and musical instruments. A non-Welsh-speaking parent can begin with just two or three words and add the rest gradually.
Ask children to draw the scene after listening without seeing the poster. Their pictures will probably be very different, because the rhyme leaves many details unexplained. Afterwards, compare the drawings and identify the Welsh word that inspired each object. This makes listening purposeful while keeping the activity creative.
The printable uses a restrained star-and-dash border so the words remain central. Every decorative shape, including the tiny banjo symbol, was drawn specifically for this resource from basic SVG paths. There are no commercial characters, logos, external fonts or stock illustrations.
Why do versions of the words differ?
Traditional rhymes are often learned by hearing rather than by reading one official text. Over many generations, a place, object, spelling or final joke can change. One family might sing wrth y garreg wen, meaning “by the white stone”, while another remembers a line about y Gamfa Wen, the white stile. These variations do not necessarily mean that one family has learned the song incorrectly.
This poster follows the compact eight-line version found in an older Welsh nursery-rhyme collection. Modern punctuation and the full form ei make it clearer for today’s beginning readers, while chwarae uses modern spelling. The unusual traditional content has not been rewritten or sanitised.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dacw Mam yn Dwad a traditional Welsh nursery rhyme?
Yes. It appears in a historical collection of Welsh nursery rhymes and continues to be sung as a traditional children’s song. Different versions are in circulation.
What is the cow doing?
Yn brefu am y llo means the cow is lowing or calling for the calf. The verb describes the sound made by cattle.
Why is the calf playing a banjo?
There is no realistic explanation. The absurd image creates the comic surprise at the end and gives children an action they can perform while singing.
Can I print this for school or home?
Yes. The Prydain sheet is intended for personal, family and classroom use. Please do not resell it or upload the downloadable file to another website.
