A Swedish folk song in translation: "Jag vet en dejlig rosa"/"I know a rose so lovely"

[luzula]

I wanted to share the Swedish folk song "Jag vet en dejlig rosa" with you guys, so I translated it to English! The first half of this is the Swedish song, so if you just want to listen to the English one, you can skip to the break in the middle. My voice is still a bit rusty from the cold I had, but whatever.

Jag vet en dejlig rosa
Och vit som liljeblad
När jag på henne tänker
Så görs mitt hjärta glad
Dess stämma ger en hjärtans tröst
Likt näktergalens blida röst
Så hövisk och så ljuv

När solen fagert stiger
Är hon som purpur klar
Gud, låt dig aldrig sörja
Men alltid vara glad
Må de få komma samman
I hjärtans fröjd och gamman
Som längta till varann

Var dag går solen neder
Och dagelig uppgår
När kommer dagen blider
Då jag dig skåda får?
I hågen är du städs mig när
Farväl, farväl, min hjärtans kär
Mångtusende godnatt


I know a rose so lovely
And white as lily leaf
And when I think upon her
My heart is free of grief
Its singing makes my heart rejoice
As the nightingale's gentle voice
So courtly and so sweet

When the sun uprises beautiful
She is in purple clad
God, never let you sorrow
But always be glad
May they come together
In heart's delight forever
Who long, each for each

Each day the sun goes down
Each day will rise again
When will the fair day come
When I see you again
In mind you are always near
Farewell, farewell, my own most dear
And thousands of good nights

I really love this song--in a sense it's very simple, but still heartfelt. I've been singing it a lot lately (la la la, heartbreak, etc). It was easier than I thought to translate it, and I could even preserve the rhyme scheme. Some of them aren't perfect rhymes, but that's true of the original as well. In fact, with some of the rhymes I could just use the exact translation: "near/dear" correspond exactly to "när/kär".

When I think about it, perhaps the line "who long, each for each" does not work? I just googled the phrase "each for each" and it does not actually appear in any texts. *facepalm* I meant it to mean "who long, each for the other", but, well. And it means there's an awful lot of "each" in that part of the lyrics. Also, I know "lily leaf" is not literally a good description--it should be lily petal, but I'm just following the original, which also has "leaf", so I think that's fine. The original has this lovely balance of simple and old-fashioned, which I am not sure I captured, but I tried, at least. Comments welcome!

Comments

[seascribble]

I love listening to you sing in Swedish! This is gorgeous.

[luzula]

Oh hey, thanks! : )

[antisoppist]

That's lovely. The song, the translation and the singing :-) I don't think "each for each" is a problem. It reminded me of Browning's Meeting at Night, which is "each to each" but still...

[luzula]

Thank you! I do really like that song, and I'm glad the translation worked for you.

[omens]

Very pretty! I liked following along with the Swedish sounds :D!

[luzula]

Glad you liked! : )

[lemon_tree_7]

Oh, this is lovely! I know no Swedish so I am glad of the translation (which works well for me) but I really enjoy you singing the original

[luzula]

Thank you! : )

[scribe]

Ooh, this is lovely! I'm really impressed by your translation, too.

[luzula]

Thank you! I really enjoy doing translations sometimes.

[riverlight]

Oh, cool! This was fun to hear.

Like other commenters, the "each for each" line reminds me of "each to each," which I know from T.S. Eliot. :)

[luzula]

Thanks! : ) Glad you liked it, especially since you're one of the few people in my circle who can appreciate both versions.

[riverlight]

:D

[ride_4ever]

Beautiful!

Oddly, it makes me think of folk songs I heard growing up in a Yiddish-speaking household.

[luzula]

Thanks!

Well, there are commonalities between Swedish and Yiddish--I remember when I was talking to someone who knew Yiddish and we realized that we shared the word "smuts". Which I guess comes from the same place as English "smut", but it was still fun.