posted
Once again I try my hand at translating Norwegian poetry. You can hear this one sung, if you like.
By the treeline there's a picket, moss-grown and grey. It is a ruin, posts akimbo, but still it stands to mark its place. Once this was a vital barrier, protecting crops from tread of kine.
A picket don't last forever, y'know. It won't stand forever.
An ancient picket, that stands in witness to a time that's gone it is a story of old greatness, man against nature - a battle past. Other fronts now see fighting, but pickets we have with us still.
A picket don't last forever, y'know. It won't stand forever.
What is a picket? A picket can be many things: A row of sticks that form a fence, or a fenced-in part of your own mind. An old prejudgment, "for coloreds only", hate or envy, an eye turned blind.
A picket don't last forever, y'know. It won't stand forever.
Turn where you like: There's a picket 'twixt then and now. A picket is a border, a picket is a barrier for the few. A hating heart, a class division, a jealous mind, a long-past war.
A picket don't last forever, y'know. It won't stand forever.
Where is your picket? Oh yes, you have one; no man can do without. A thing you would keep distant; a secret your neighbours must not see. But your barrier needn't stand. A picket can be climbed by those who will.
A picket don't last forever, y'know. It won't stand forever.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Flaming Toad on a Stick: Very well done.
Thank you.
The refrain has become an idiom in Norway; "Ein skigard kan'kje vara evigt, veit du." I posted this in an AAR the other year, referring to a line of fortifications that had been breached, and thinking I was being vastly obscure. Instantly another Norwegian responded "kan aaaaaaldri vara evig."
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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