Louise Brooks in Welsh language literature

This past weekend I received an interesting email, the kind I love to get. It was about a reference to Louise Brooks in contemporary Welsh language literature. In Y Ddynes Ddirgel (The Mysterious Woman), author Mihangel Morgan compares a character to Louise Brooks. The passage in Welsh reads.

"Roeddwn i'n codi o'm sedd ac yn troi tua'r drws pan welais i hi yn llithro allan. Dim ond cipolwg, mater o eiliad neu ddau. Dim ond ochr ei phen a welswn – ond roeddwn i'n eithaf si r taw hyhi oedd hi. Roedd ei gwallt yn fyr ac yn ddu fel adain brân ac wedi'i dorri'n onglog ac yn gornelog fel gwallt Louise Brooks yn Pandora's Box. Ond ai hi oedd hi? Allwn i ddim bod yn hollol sicr, doeddwn i ddim wedi'i gweld hi ers blynyddoedd. Ac onid oedd hi wedi marw? Roedd hi wedi diflannu, ta beth. Na, allwn i ddim bod yn sicr."

Which reads in English as

"I was getting up from my seat and turning towards the door when I saw her slip out. It was only a glance, just a matter of a second or two. I could only see the side of her head – but I was quite sure that it was her. Her hair was short and as black as the wings of a crow and had been cut in an angular, edged shape like the hair of Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box. But was it her? I couldn’t be completely sure, I hadn’t seen her for years. And hadn’t she died? She had disappeared, at least. No, I couldn’t be sure."

Y Ddynes Ddirgel, a novel, was published in 2001.

Mihangel Morgan was born in Aberdare in south Wales in 1955. His first novel Dirgel Ddyn (Mysterious Man, 1993) won the National Eisteddfod Prose Medal and marked the beginning of a career as one of Wales' formeost contemporary authors. More about the book and the author can be found here.

Diolch yn fawr (thank you) to Dilwyn (Roberts-Young) for send this information to me. Dilwyn even mentioned he listens to RadioLulu while at work in Wales.