Thursday, April 22, 2010

Rosetta Stoned Poem



(mistranslating a poem from a language I don't know)                  Olav H.Hauge
DU LEIKAR MED PILER                       YOU LIE IN PILES OF GRASS

Lover er sette                                 Settling into
for alt i verdi.                                 your lover's newness,
Og du skal sukka                              you skillfully looted
og luta med herdi.                           her greenhouse

Du smiler. Du kan                            and smiled. You had
dette no:                                        no idea
Gripa pilen i floget                          gripping piles of flowers
og leika med ho.                             made her so happy.

Du veg din lagnad.                           Your body was languid -
Vel har du tap.                                 now it feels retracted
Og sælebot slær                               like a sailboat barely slicing
si dør på gap.                                   through a tiny gap.

Du leikar med piler                           You lie in once green
og lov i ei verd -                               plucked grass,
svik du deg sjølv,                              sick with defeat
er det her.                                       that is not yours.

© 2010 by Kathryn Feigal. All rights reserved. 
(If you can find a translation, I'd like to read it. Google word for word translation says it is about you, playing with arrows, where laws are set to everything with value. You smile, grip an arrow in flight and play with it. You are off the mark and have lost your destiny. The betrayal to yourself is here. I think I came relatively, poetically close to the meaning just by guessing. What do you think? Any Norwegians out there?)

2 comments:

  1. I'm not Norwegian but your translation works well for me, Kass. I think you're safe to forget about Google's version.

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  2. entirely embracing. charmed, even.

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