I sat behind a girl in French last Thursday. She had a shirt on with some really well-executed calligraphic script on the back, which read:
hu! Det regner og det blæs for langt nord i fjellom
Djupt under hellom
der leikar det…
Can anyone tell me what this means?
Hmm… this is norwegian, but I’m going to give it a shot anyways
hu! - ‘Hu’ is a word that lacks literal meaning, but it’s used to express displeasure
Det regner og det blæs for langt nord i fjellom
Djupt under hellom der leikar det…
It rains and the wind blows;
because far north in the mountains
deep underneath a crest,
they play.
This should not be considered to be a precise translation, as it is pretty old norwegian according to my norwegian gírlfriend. The quote is taken from a song by the seemingly norwegian band ‘ulver’ and from the album ‘Bergtatt’ (Mountaintaken, refers to being taken by trolls or other similar creatures). It’s a part of the fifth track called ‘Ind I Fjellkamrene’ (In into the mountain chambers).
Here’s a translation of the entire song, even though I do not agree with parts of their translation, but I asume it is translated that way to preserve the rhyme of the original song.
http://web.tiscali.it/nordensskalder/englishpage/ulver.htm#5