The Swan
- 1. “She” refers to a certain woman that often sits by the lake and sings songs to a swan.
- 2. vatn (definite form → vatnið) = (literally/alternatively) water
- 3. “Him”, “he” and all other male pronouns in this translation refer to the swan, and not to the lake.
- 4. literally: “Wherever he (the swan) left his”
- 5. literally/alternatively: “Life on the other side.”
- 6. This pronoun can refer to both the swan and the woman.
| Thanks! ❤ |  |  |
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joe1212 on 2013-07-16
Vimto12 joe1212 on 2013-07-19| 1. | Svanur |
| 2. | Sólin Mun Skína |
| 3. | Sjónarspil |
TrampGuy joe1212
Tue, 16/07/2013 - 13:47
I don't think they refer to the swan, as the swan is female in this song.
I chose for "day", because I found the following the Online Icelandic Dictionary: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/IcelOnline/IcelOnline.TEId-idx?.... I figured "hann" meant "það" here, and that "hann" is probably used for poetic reasons, but I'm not entirely sure about that.
On the other hand, what you're saying might be correct as well. Perhaps it would be best if I'd just ask Daughter to look at it.
Lítill Starálfur
Wed, 07/11/2018 - 16:47
The swan is masculine in this song, svanur is a masculine word, I believe hún is a person and hann is the swan (he appeared : the swan).
johannesbjarki
Thu, 18/07/2013 - 02:23
Here are a few comments, guys. In icelandic words usually stick to their gender, for poetic reasons or if you want your concept to have a different meaning you have to select a differet word to use. Let's take an example:
Svanur (a swan) is m.s. (masculine singular),
Álft also means 'a swan' but it is f.s. (feminine s.)
Although the Icelandic pronouns Hann, hún and það do translate as 'He, she' and 'it.' What differs here from English is that 'He' and 'She' can refer to nouns of the m. or f. class (such as svanur and álft). Let's take a look at the first verse and emphasize on grammar:
Hún sat ein við vatnið,
og söng til hans.
Ljúfsára söngva
Uns hann birtist.
SVANUR (m.s.nominative case)
Hún (f.s.nom; She, some woman that we don't know) sat ein (f.s.nom.) við vatnið,
og söng til hans (m.s.genitive case; to him, i.e. the swan. The preposition 'til' always takes the genitive case for no obvious reason),
ljúfsára (m.plural.accusative case) söngva (m.pl.acc.; these two words stand together and are an object for the verb 'söng': Hún söng söngva = She sang songs...to him),
uns hann (m.s.nom.) birtist (appeared; uns hann birtist = until he appeared).
One more thing, Hvert means 'Where to.' So:
Hvert (Where to) siglir þú (do you sail) er (when) sólin (f.s.nom.) fer? (the sun goes)
Hvar sem hann skildi sín (This does not actually make any sense; Wherever he (the swan) left his)
En aldrei fékk hún (f.s.nom;She) svör (neutral.pl.acc; Hún (f.s.nom.) fékk (3.person.s.) svör (n.pl.acc.) ...aldrei = She got responses...never)
Lífið (in Icelandic we say 'the life', Life = Líf) hinum megin (Life on the other side)
Ef þekkti (s.3.p.) betri heim (If she/he/it knew of a better world.)
The lyrics are extremely senseless in Icelandic so don't worry if you don't get it. Anyway, I hope this has been useful and I'll leave a quick tip:
The grammar is a tool, not an obstacle. Try to use it. If you have a noun that is in the nom. case then most likely that noun will be the subject of the sentence. If you have nouns in the same case, with the same number and same gender, then probabluy they are linked, although they can be positioned at different ends of the sentence. Good luck!
joe1212
Thu, 18/07/2013 - 10:43
Hi Johannes,
Many thanks for your extremely useful suggestions! :) I made some corrections to my translation.
It's great to know that it wasn't just me who couldn't put any sense into these lyrics.
However, I still tried to put some sense into my translation, but I also added all the literal meanings to the annotations.
It would be great if you could take another look to see if my translation looks better now! :) If so, I'll also add a Dutch translation of these lyrics (Dutch is my first language).
To be honest, I only recently started self-studying the Icelandic language (as well as some other North Germanic languages).
I do notice that the steps you have to follow while translating an Icelandic text aren't much different from those you have to follow while translating from Latin, which I have to do a lot at school!
Cheers,
Joe
johannesbjarki
Thu, 18/07/2013 - 11:28
Yes, it is very similar to Latin methodology and it is good to know that you are already familiar with it. You can keep an eye open for articles about this in the article session, I'm thinking about writing some (and I already wrote one).
The translation looks about right now and thanks for your comment. Good luck with your Icelandic :)
joe1212
Fri, 19/07/2013 - 09:57
By the way, is it true that the verb "sigla" can also mean "to fly"?
If so, I think that "where to do you sail when the Sun goes?" would rather mean something like "where to do you fly when the Sun goes?". And do you know what "when the Sun goes" refers to? Does it mean something like "when the Sun sets"? (By the way, the word "Sun" doesn't necessarily have to be capitalised. It's sort of a optional capitalisation.)
johannesbjarki
Thu, 08/08/2013 - 00:18
No, it does not mean to fly, although I could see why that word would be chosen for a spaceflight. I just don't think the lyrics are well composed. These exact word may have been chosen for allitteral reason. Such is very common in Icelandic.
citlālicue
Sun, 29/01/2017 - 03:48
Changes have been made to the lyrics:
Hvar sem hann skildi sín > Fannst sem hann skildi sig
Lítill Starálfur
Wed, 07/11/2018 - 16:51
The translation should be then changed to "Felt like he understood"
Many thanks to johannesbjarki for his very useful tips! :)
Much of these lyrics are extremely senseless in both Icelandic and English. However, I still tried to put some sense into it. I added some annotations containing literal meanings and further explanations.