The Great Weaver From Kashmir
Page 37
103Secundum intentionem puram (Latin): From pure intent.
104Propter regnum coelorum (Latin): For the Kingdom of Heaven.
105The English translation of this poem is, like the Soupault poem earlier, from the Arason/Laxness translation of The Great Weaver from the 1920s.
106Oblatus secularis (Latin): Secular oblation; worldly service (an obligatory regulation, without being attached to it).
107Credo in unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam (Latin): Part of the Creed, “I believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.”
108A ship came out to Leiruvogur: This is a translation of a line from the medieval saga Egils saga Skallagrímssonar (The Saga of Egill Skallagrímsson), ch. 79: “Þat var eitt sumar, at skip kom út í Leiruvági . . .” (“One summer a ship put in at Leiruvogur”). The ship’s captain is a man named Þormóðr, and he brings Egill a shield sent by Þorsteinn Þóruson in Norway; Egill composes a verse in thanks (Egill is living at the time in Mosfell, where Halldór Laxness grew up). Leiruvogur is in Kollafjörður, the bay bordering Reykjavík. The references to viking “activities” (battles, shipwreck, head-ransoms) at the end of this chapter are for the most part direct allusions to events in the life of Egill Skallagrímsson. (Egils saga Skallagrímssonar, ed. Sigurður Nordal, Íslensk Fornrit, Reykjavík, 1933, p. 275.)
109Mörður Fiddle (Mörðr Gígja): the name of one of the main characters in Njáls Saga, one of the greatest of the medieval Icelandic sagas.
110Sagaöen (Norwegian): Island of sagas; that is, Iceland.
111Kleppur: The name of a mental hospital in Reykjavík.
112Skyr: A traditional Icelandic food, smooth curds made from skimmed milk and cheese rennet.
113Tíminn: An Icelandic newspaper, founded in Reykjavík as a weekly paper in 1917, published as a daily paper since 1947. Tíminn has been the mouthpiece for the Progressive Party since 1938.
114Mein Herz pocht wild beweglich . . . (German): From the song “Die Meerfrau,” written by the German poet Heinrich Heine, and set to music by the German composer and conductor Franz Paul Lachner (1803–1890) (“My heart pounds so wildly turbulent, it pounds so turbulently wild: I love you so unspeakably, you shining human child.”
115O mighty Lord of Israel . . . : From The Imitation of Christ, Book Three, chapter XX (“Confessing Our Weaknesses in the Miseries of Life”).
116Qui, qui . . . (Italian): “Here, here, in this very orchard, you could . . .”
117De profundis . . .: Psalm 130:1–8.
118I love him, because the Lord heard . . . : Psalm 116:1–9.
119Ford: The American businessman Henry Ford’s autobiographical work, Today and Tomorrow, originally published in 1926, was read in Iceland in Danish translation, Idag og imorgen. Dr. Helgi Pjeturss: Helgi Pjeturss (1872–1949), the first Icelander to earn a B.A. in geology. He later devoted himself to philosophy and psychology.
120Det var en vas med roser: There was a vase with roses. (Apparently Swedish, but with roser misspelled (should be rosor)). Unidentified quotation.
121In Icelandic folktales, a sending is a ghost conjured and sent by a sorcerer to attack an enemy.
122Sicut tenebrae ejus sicut et lumen ejus (Latin): “And as is his darkness, so is his light” (Psalm 139:12).
123Völuspá: The Völuspá (the “Prophecy of the Sybil”) is a famous mythological poem from the Elder Edda, a collection of poems dealing with ancient Scandinavian mythological and legendary subjects. In the Völuspá a sybil relates the story of the creation and destruction of the world, predicting the creation of a new world following Ragnarök, the final battle between the ancient Scandinavian gods and giants.
124Fais le testament . . . (French): Make a pact between your intellect and your heart; that is the most useful thing that you can do.
125Three holy elders in Tolstoy’s folktales: A reference to the story, “The Three Hermits,” published in 1886.
126Bonjour, monsieur . . . (French): Good day, Mr. Devil! I am charmed to see you. How are you? May I offer you a seat?
127A variation on an another Icelandic idiomatic expression, “Rúsínan í pylsuendanum” (“The raisin at the end of the sausage”) akin to English “Icing on the cake.”
128Laetatus sum . . . (Latin): I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord (Psalm 121:1).
129Stantes erant . . . (Latin): Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem (Psalm 121:2).
130The elder from Yasnaya Polyana is Leo Tolstoy.
131Maintenant c’est . . . (French): Now is the exact moment for eating.
132Ich hab’ meine . . . (German): “I placed my trust in nothing, and the whole world belongs to me,” from the poem “Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!” published in 1806 by Goethe.
133Punch: A British magazine of humor and satire, founded in 1841 and closed in 2002. The works of some of the greatest comic writers and cartoonists were published in Punch. Strix: unidentified.
134Oportet et hæreses esse (Latin): Even heresies must exist (1 Corinthians 11:19).
135Benedic, pater . . . (Latin): Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
136Poenam damni (Latin): The punishment reserved for the damned.
137Domine . . . (Latin): “Lord, if I am in darkness, may you be blessed.” From De Imitatione Christi, Book III, 17:2.
138Madame n’a pas l’air d’une intrigueuse (French): Madam does not seem to be a conspirator.
139Deum quem . . . (Latin): God whom they did not recognize in the exposition of the Holy Scriptures, they recognize in the breaking of the bread.
140The Latin Biblical quotation is from Matthew 16:18–19 (“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church”). Laxness extends Christ’s play on the meaning of Peter’s name (Greek for “rock”) to his protagonist (steinn means “rock” in Icelandic).
Acknowledgments
The translator gratefully acknowledges the encouragement and support of Pétur Már Ólafsson, the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California-Irvine, the Sigurður Nordal Institute (Reykjavík), the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies (Reykjavík), the Fund for the Promotion of Icelandic Literature (Reykjavík), Auður Laxness and Guðný Halldórsdóttir, Norbert and Judy Roughton, Regina Carlyon and L. Michael Bell, Halldór Guðmundsson, and Jill Schoolman.
archipelago books
is a not-for-profit literary press devoted to
promoting cross-cultural exchange through innovative
classic and contemporary international literature
www.archipelagobooks.org