"Till grälmakar Löfberg i stärbhuset vid Dantobommen, diktad vid graven. Dedicerad till Doktor Blad."
To quarrelmaker Löfberg (?) in the foreclosed estate by Dantobommen, written by the grave. Dedication to doctor Blad.
This is my off the top of my head translation, with a good measure of "artistic freedom" - I aim for almost singable but haven tried to rhyme. Its a 30 minute work so dont judge me too hard!
Movitz, my brother, notice how our shade
Cafrries a darkness within it
How gold and purple, in the shovel over there
Contrasts to gravel, clumps and clay bits
Charon waving from his roaring stream
then the gravedigger three times joins in (three shovels of dirt over the casket)
No more of your grapes you will crush
Therefore, Movitz, come help me to raise
A gravestone over our sister
(This verse is not in thåströms version, but in the original)
"Ach längtansvärda och bortskymda skjul,
Under de susande grenar,
Där Tid och Döden en skönhet och ful
Til et stoft förenar!
Til dig aldrig Afund sökt någon stig,
Lyckan, eljest uti flygten så vig,
Aldrig kring Grifterna ilar.
Ovän där väpnad, hvad synes väl dig?
Bryter fromt sina pilar."
Comes out to:
Oh you beloved, and away obscured shack
under the windrushing branches
Where time and Death into one matter twines
ugliness, and beauty
To you envy never searched for a path
Luck that otherwise in flight nimble, fast
Never around the graves is flitting.
There, armed en'my, what's for you to see?
He piously breaks his arrows
The small bell tolls, to the drone of the big
With wreath the Cantor in the door stands
And at the prayer that the loud choirboys sing
This place is being sacred
The path up to the Temple's grave-sprinkled place
Is trodden slowly between yellowed rose leaves
Rottened planks and stretchers
Until the long and black-dressed row
Softly and in tears will bow down low
Thus, into resting from fighting and ball
went quarrelmaker Löfberg, your spouse
There from the grass, long necked and thin
She still stares back at your house
She was divided from "the Dantobom" today (name of her and Löfberg's tavern where Bellman and Movitz were regulars and drank a lot)
And with her all our lustful boozed jaggs
Now who will order the bottle?
Thirsty was she, and thirsty am I
We are thirsty all together....
Von Carl Michael Bellman aus "Fredmans Episteln"