Saturday, September 17, 2011

Another Lausavísr: Vatns-flóð (Rain-Flood)

This verse has evolved from the English original into a slightly bittersweet verse concerning the wet and wild weather of the past month or so. I'm including the Old Norse-Icelandic verse, followed by the line by line and the prose order translations.  You can listen to it here.

Vatns-flóð

Hátunnu regns himna
hjúfr drógu skurir
grœdis vagna grogg-óttr
grautar-traðkar al-staðar.
Tárum élskríns fljótandi
túna-bards sem vágar
bána soðning baugvell
bólstaðar al-skolar.

Rain-Flood

High barrel of rain of heaven
drizzling remain showers
sea of wagons muddy
porridge-paths everywhere.
tears of the storm-shrine flowing
town of the prows like waves
bane welling of the ring of the field
homesteads all wash away.

Prose order

The clouds [Hátunnu regns himna > high barrel of rain of heaven > CLOUDS] leave drizzling showers – The muddy land [grœdis vagna > sea of wagons > LAND] porridge-paths everywhere. Rain [Tárum élskríns > tears of the storm-shrine > tears of the heavens > RAIN] like the ocean's [túna-bards > town of the prows > OCEAN] waves – the flood [bána soðning baugvell > welling bane of the ring of the field > SNAKE > FLOOD] washes all homesteads away.

I hope you enjoyed. Please comment.

More next week.

Fridrikr

No comments:

Post a Comment