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Hey everyone!
I've got a question about a meaning nuance of the verb "å gå" in Norwegian. More specifically, I'm wondering it about the song "La den gå".
My vehicular language with the Nordic branch is Swedish, and were this song Swedish ("låt den gå"), I would translate it as "let it walk". In this context, I wouldn't say that any other interpretation fits, implying that the lyrics were written using an incorrect verb (trasposed rather directly from the English "let it go"). I would assume that the same goes with Norwegian, am I right?
Thanks in advance to anyone who will help me figuring it out ^^
Well, Disney translations often sound a bit clunky, to be honest.
In this case, it still kind of works. "La (noen/noe) gå" can also mean "(to) set (sb/sth) free", "(to) release (sb/sth)":
La den gå, la den gå
Den kraften jeg skjulte før
would (in my opinion) be best translated as
Set it free, set it free
The power I used to hide
Can it? Like....could you explain in which cases it can mean this? I'm really trying to grasp this meaning, to understand if it was a (poor) loan translation from the English "let it go" or if it actually works in a correct Norwegian.
On språkrådet they give these definitions, do you see the one you're thinking about among them?
1. flytte seg skritt for skritt, ferdes til fots, spasere, begi seg av sted, fare
2. være i bevegelse, i gang, fare; sette seg i bevegelse (which I suppose is the definition of "to journey, to travel")
3. li, passere, ha sin gang, være, ligge, strekke seg; forlate, forsvinne, ødelegges, svinne hen
4. være, befinne seg i en tilstand, bruke
5. herje; være i omløp, versere, sirkulere, omsettes
6. være mulig, kunne skje, la seg gjøre
7. utvikle seg, lykkes, virke, fungere; hende (IV), skje (II)
8. bli ansett som
9. mislykkes
10. rekke (III), nå (IV)
11. rommes
--> https://ordbok.uib.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?OPP=g%C3%A5&ant_bokmaal=5&ant_nyno...
Well, you looked up "gå" and not "la gå".
You can find a definition for "la gå" further down:
la gå! send! kast! (for eksempel trosse på en båt); i overført betydning: ok, som du vil
I had seen it, but that seems to refere to another nuance of the word: "la det gå", not "la den gå".
This is a side of the meaning that was excluded by the lyricist in person. Lisa Stokke (Elsa's voice) explained it under a comment:
So I can guess that the difference here is between something concrete (like her power) and something abstract, does this make sense?
Nah, it's more simple than that.
"La det gå!" --> In this case, "det" is simply an indeterminate "it" (also called a "dummy pronoun", which is simply used to to fulfill a syntactic role) just like in the English expression "let it go" (we don't exactly know that "it" is, but we need an object in that sentence), only in Norwegian this expression means more like "never mind" (as Lisa explained).
"La den gå, den kraften som..." --> In this case, "den" is a pronoun substituting for the word "kraft(en)", which happens to be an "en" (common) word in Norwegian. In this case, it's not really an idiom, but it more literally means "let go", "allow (sth.) to go" in the sense of "release", "set free", "launch [a boat]" etc. If the Frozen character weren't releasing her "kraft" but some neuter ("et") word (her "lys", for example), it would be "la det gå" ("La det gå, lyset som...").
OK, I'm feeling more convinced now. Thank you for you elucidation, it was very helpful!
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