Ar Lan y Môr [Lyrics, Meaning, and English/Phonetic Translation]

Ar Lan y Môr is a traditional Welsh song that might be sung at school and has been covered by many famous Welsh artists.

As someone who grew up on the Lleyn Peninsula surrounded by môr (sea), this song has always resonated with me. I also happen to be a bilingual Welsh teacher and translator, so in this guide, I'm going to explain exactly what the song means with a full English translation and a phonetic pronunciation too.

What is the Ar Lan Y Môr Song About?

Ar Lan y Môr is a love song; we could say that it is just as much a love song for the seaside as it is to the singer's lover.

Throughout the song, the singer describes where their love can be found - beside the sea (ar lan y môr) - with vivid descriptions of all the things that can be found by the seaside, such as blue pebbles, golden flowers, the sea and the sand.

We learn very little about the singer's lover in the song, leaving some to believe that the "cariad" (love) being spoken about is actually the seaside itself - until the last line, in which we learn that the song is about a girl called Elin.

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Ar Lan Y Môr Lyrics

The original Ar Lan Y Môr lyrics are in Welsh. You can listen to them being sung in this well-known cover of the song by Cerys Matthews on YouTube.

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Who Wrote Ar Lan Y Môr?

"Ar Lan y Môr" (Beside the Sea) is a traditional Welsh folk song in which a lover sings about Elin, their love. As with many traditional Welsh folk songs, the original author of Ar Lan y Môr is unknown.

The song first appeared in printed form in the Journal of the Welsh Folk-Song Society in 1937 (source: Peoples Collection Wales) and is likely from the tradition of "hen benillion" (old verses), simple verses - often four rhyming lines - on topics such as love, death, and wisdom that were first recorded in the 16th century. Typically, new words were put to older, more well-known tunes (source: T. H. Parry-Williams, Hen Benillion, 2010).

Ar Lan Y Môr has been made famous in more recent years by Aled Jones, Bryn Terfel, Dafydd Iwan, Elin Fflur, Katherine Jenkins and many others who have covered it. The lyrics are sometimes adapted or changed.

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Ar Lan Y Môr English Translation

Below, I've shared a direct English translation of the Welsh song lyrics as outlined earlier in this article rather than an attempt to recreate the rhyme, poetry and feeling of the song.

I decided to keep the phrase "beside the sea", although "on a beach" might be a more accurate translation of "ar lan y môr".

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Ar Lan Y Môr Phonetic Translation

The Welsh language isn't always the easiest to pronounce, so I've put together this phonetic translation to help you sing along to this classic.

However, keep in mind that phonetic translations of Welsh for English speakers isn't straightforward as the same words in English can be pronounced differently depending upon the words (e.g. through / tough / drought). This means that two people may pronounce the phonetic transcriptions completely differently so i recommend learning some basic Welsh.

A few tips to help: *ch* is used to denote the more "guttural" sound (as in "loch") while *ll* is a sound only found in Welsh and a few other languages, which is created by making the "l" shape in your mouth and then blowing. Perhaps listen to the song alongside this transcription for a clearer idea.