Are there any Welsh speakers on the forum...

[EM2]

...that have read the Owain Owain novel 'Y Dydd Olaf'?
This book has inspired an album (of the same title) by Welsh singer Gwenno (I've posted a couple of tracks in the 'What Are You Listening To?' thread). I've translated all the titles except one, 'Fratolish Hiang Perpeshki'. From what I can make out, it's not an actual Welsh phrase and when I saw Gwenno in concert last week, she said it's a phrase that the narrator repeats over and over and over at the end of the novel.
I'd love to know how this phrase fits into the story of the book? Has the narrator lost the fight against the robots? Has he gone mad?
Would be grateful to find the answer!

 

[krus_aragon]

While I haven't read the novel in question, I can confirm (as a fluent speaker) that those three words aren't related to the Welsh language.

In Wicipedia's summary of the novel, it says the narrator (Marc) is trying to resist a process of mind-conditioning by "them" (with some parallels to 1984 and Brave New World). The phrase 'Fratolish Hiang Perpeski' is apparently evidence of the mind-conditioning process.

Trying to "analyse" the phrase, I find myself relating to the latin words Fraternitas (brotherhood) and Perpetuus (perpetual/forever). I draw a blank on Hiang, however.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Trying to "analyse" the phrase, I find myself relating to the latin words Fraternitas (brotherhood) and Perpetuus (perpetual/forever). I draw a blank on Hiang, however.

All that I have traced for Hiang is a spiced cooked meat that is well known in Singapore.

 

[EM2]

While I haven't read the novel in question, I can confirm (as a fluent speaker) that those three words aren't related to the Welsh language.

In Wicipedia's summary of the novel, it says the narrator (Marc) is trying to resist a process of mind-conditioning by "them" (with some parallels to 1984 and Brave New World). The phrase 'Fratolish Hiang Perpeski' is apparently evidence of the mind-conditioning process.

Trying to "analyse" the phrase, I find myself relating to the latin words Fraternitas (brotherhood) and Perpetuus (perpetual/forever). I draw a blank on Hiang, however.

Ah! That makes sense, from what I know of the novel ("them" being robots trying to enslave humans). Could you possibly translate that summary?

 

[krus_aragon]

Ah! That makes sense, from what I know of the novel ("them" being robots trying to enslave humans). Could you possibly translate that summary?

Mae'r stori'n ymdrin a bachgen o'r enw Marc a phytiau o'i ddyddiaduron sy'n nodi gafael y 'Brawd Mawr' ar bobl y Ddaear, a llithra bob yn hyn a hyn i'w gafael gan ynganu'n eu hiaith ‘Fratolish Hiang Perpeski'; sy'n brawf o'r cyflyru y ceisia ddianc rhagddo - dianc oddi wrth y dyfodol dystopaidd. Ymgais sydd yma gan yr awdur i'n rhybuddio o'r dull tawel mae'r 'Ddelwedd Fawr' yn cyflyru ei dinasyddion, drwy eu moldio'n un corff totalitaraidd, unffurf, neu fel y dywed Owain dro ar ôl tro yn ei gerddi - y 'llwydni llwyd'.

The story deals with a boy by the name of Marc and extracts of his diary which note the grip of the 'Big Brother' on the people of Earth, and who slips into their grasp now and again saying in their language ‘Fratolish Hiang Perpeski'; which testifies to the conditioning he is attempting to escape from - escape from the dystopian future. This is an attempt by the author to warn us of the quiet means by which the 'Big Picture' conditions its citizens, by moulding them into a totalitarian, uniform body, or as Owain said time after time in his poems - the 'grey greyness'.

 

[DaleCooper]

Fratolish Hiang Perpeshki is an anagram of:

Fresh sepia ink lithograph

...which explains everything!