An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway - Martin Brown Ruud (book club reads .TXT) 📗

segjer fenden; "nei; ikkje fantegaa," segjer

  samvite. "Du samvit," segjer eg, "du raader meg godt." "Du fenden,"

  segjer eg, "du raader meg godt." Fylgde eg no samvite, so vart eg

  verande hjaa juden, som--forlate mi synd--er noko som ein devel; og

  rømer eg fraa juden, so lyder eg fenden, som--beintfram sagt--er

  develen sjølv. Visst og sannt: juden er sjølve develen i karnition;

  men etter mitt vit er samvite mit vitlaust, som vil raade meg til aa

  verta verande hjaa juden. Fenden gjev meg den venlegaste raadi; eg

  tek kuten, fenden; hælane mine stend til din kommando; eg tek kuten."

 

This has the genuine ring. The brisk colloquial vocabulary fits

admirably the brilliant sophistry of the argument. And both could come

only from Launcelot Gobbo. For "the simplicity of the folk" is one of

those fictions which romantic closet study has woven around the study of

"the people."

 

Of the little re-telling of _The Merchant of Venice_, "Soga um

Kaupmannen i Venetia"[32] which appeared in the same year, nothing need

be said. It is a simple, unpretentious summary of the story with a

certain charm which simplicity and naïveté always give. No name appears

on the title-page, but we are probably safe in attributing it to

Madhus, for in the note to _Kaupmannen i Venetia_ we read: "I _Soga um

Kaupmannen i Venetia_ hev ein sjølve forteljingi som stykkji er bygt

paa."

 

    [32. _Soga um Kaupmannen i Venetia_. Oslo, 1905.]

 

I

 

In the year 1903, midway between the publication of Madhus' _Macbeth_

and the appearance of his _Kaupmannen i Venetia_, there appeared in the

chief literary magazine of the Landsmaal movement, "Syn og Segn," a

translation of the fairy scenes of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ by Erik

Eggen.[33] This is the sort of material which we should expect Landsmaal

to render well. Oberon and Titania are not greatly different from Nissen

and Alverne in Norwegian fairy tales, and the translator had but to

fancy himself in Alveland to be in the enchanted wood near Athens. The

spirit of the fairy scenes in Shakespeare is akin to the spirit of

Asbjørnson's "Huldre-Eventyr." There is in them a community of feeling,

of fancy, of ideas. And whereas Madhus had difficulty with the sunny

romance of Italy, Eggen in the story of Puck found material ready to

hand. The passage translated begins Act II, Sc. 1, and runs through Act

II to Oberon's words immediately before the entrance of Helen and

Demetrius:

 

  But who comes here? I am invisible;

  And I will overhear their conference.

 

    [33. _Alveliv. Eller Shakespeare's Midsumarnatt Draum_ ved Erik

    Eggen. _Syn og Segn_, 1903. No. 3-6, pp. (105-114); 248-259.]

 

Then the translator omits everything until Puck re-enters and Oberon

greets him with the words:

 

  Velkomen, vandrar; hev du blomen der?

  (Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.)

 

Here the translation begins again and goes to the exit of Oberon and the

entrance of Lysander and Hermia. This is all in the first selection in

_Syn og Segn_, No. 3.

 

In the sixth number of the same year (1903) the work is continued. The

translation here begins with Puck's words (Act III):

 

  What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here?

  So near the cradle of the fairy queen?

  What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;

  An actor, too, if I see cause.

 

Then it breaks off again and resumes with the entrance of Puck and

Bottom adorned with an ass's head. Quince's words: "O monstrous! O

strange!" are given and then Puck's speech: "I'll follow you: I'll lead

you about a round." After this there is a break till Bottom's song:

 

  "The ousel cock, so black of hue," etc.

 

And now all proceeds without break to the _Hail_ of the last elf called

in to serve Bottom, but the following speeches between Bottom and the

fairies, Cobweb, Mustardseed and Peaseblossom, are all cut, and the

scene ends with Titania's speech:

 

  "Come, wait upon him, lead him to my bower," etc.

 

Act III, Sc. 2, follows immediately, but the translation ends with the

first line of Oberon's speech to Puck before the entrance of Demetrius

and Hermia:

 

  "This falls out better than I could devise."

 

and resumes with Oberon's words:

 

  "I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy,"

 

and includes (with the omission of the last two lines) Oberon's speech

beginning:

 

  "But we are spirits of another sort."

 

Eggen then jumps to the fourth act and translates Titania's opening

speech. After this there is a break till the entrance of Oberon. The

dialogue between Titania and Oberon is given faithfully, except that

in the speech in which Oberon removes the incantation, all the lines

referring to the wedding of Theseus are omitted; the speeches of Puck,

Oberon, and Titania immediately preceding the entrance of Theseus,

Hippolyta, Egeus, and their train, are rendered.

 

From Act V the entire second scene is given.

 

Eggen has, then, attempted to give a translation into Norwegian

Landsmaal of the fairy scenes in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_. He has

confined himself severely to his task as thus limited, even cutting out

lines from the middle of speeches when these lines refer to another part

of the action or to another group of characters. What we have is, then,

a fragment, to be defended only as an experiment, and successful in

proportion as it renders single lines, speeches, or songs well. On the

whole, Eggen has been successful. There is a vigor and directness in his

style which, indeed, seem rather Norwegian than Shakespearean, but which

are, nevertheless, entirely convincing. One is scarcely conscious that

it is a translation. And in the lighter, more romantic passages Eggen

has hit the right tone with entire fidelity. His knowledge is sound. His

notes, though exhibiting no special learning, show clearly that he is

abreast of modern scholarship. Whenever his rendering seems daring, he

accompanies it with a note that clearly and briefly sets forth why a

particular word or phrase was chosen. The standard Danish, Norwegian,

and German translations are known to him, and occasionally he borrows

from them. But he knows exactly why he does borrow. His scholarship

and his real poetic power combine to give us a translation of which

Landsmaal literature has every reason to be proud. We need give only

a few passages. I like the rollicking humor of Puck's words:

 

  Kor torer uhengt kjeltrings pakk daa skvaldre

  so nære vogga hennar alvemor?

  Kva?--skodespel i gjerdom? Eg vil sjaa paa--

  kann hende spele med, um so eg synest.

 

And a little farther on when Bottom, adorned with his ass's head,

returns with Puck, and the simple players flee in terror and Puck

exclaims:

 

  Eg fylgjer dykk og fører rundt i tunn,

  i myr og busk og ormegras og klunger,

  og snart eg er ein hest og snart ein hund,

  ein gris, ein mannvond bjørn, snart flammetungur,

  og kneggjer, gøyr og ryler, murrar, brenn,

  som hest, hund, gris, bjørn, varme--eitt um senn.

 

we give our unqualified admiration to the skill of the translator. Or,

compare Titania's instructions to the faries to serve her Bottom:

 

  Ver venlege imot og tén den herren!

  Dans vænt for augo hans, hopp der han gjeng!

  Gjev aprikos og frukt fraa blaabærlid,

  ei korg med druvur, fikjur, morbær i!

  Stel honningsekken bort fraa annsam bi!

  Til Nattljos hennar voksbein slit i fleng,--

  kveik deim paa jonsok-onn i buskeheng!

  Lys for min ven, naar han vil gaa i seng.

  Fraa maala fivreld slit ein fager veng,

  og fraa hans augo maaneljose steng.

  Hels honom so, og kyss til honom sleng.

 

  _Fyrste Alven_:

  Menneskje.

 

  _Andre Alven_:

      Heil deg!

 

  _Tridje Alven_:

          Heil!

 

  _Fjerde Alven_:

              Heil og sæl!

 

  _Titania_:

  Tén honom so! Leid honom til mitt rom!

  Eg tykkjer maanen er i augo vaat;

  og naar han græt, daa græt kvar litin blom,

  og minnest daa ei tilnøydd dygd med graat.

  Legg handi paa hans munn! Og stilt far aat!

 

It is, however, in his exquisitely delicate rendering of the songs of

this play--certainly one of the most difficult tasks that a translator

can undertake--that Eggen has done his best work. There is more than a

distant echo of the original in this happy translation of Bottom's song:

 

  Han trostefar med svarte kropp

    og nebb som appelsin,

  og gjerdesmett med litin topp

    og stare med tone fin.

  Og finke, sporv og lerke graa

    og gauk,--ho, ho![34] han lær,

  so tidt han gjev sin næste smaa;

    men aldri svar han fær.

 

    [34. The translator explains in a note the pun in the original.]

 

The marvelous richness of the Norwegian dialects in the vocabulary of

folklore is admirably brought out in the song with which the fairies

sing Titania to sleep:[35]

 

  _Ein alv_:

  Spettut orm med tungur tvo,

  kvass bust-igel, krjup kje her!

le, staal-orm, fara no,

  kom vaar alvemor ei nær!

 

  _Alle alvene_:

  Maaltrost, syng med tone full

  du med oss vaart bysselull:

  bysse, bysse, bysselull,

    ei maa vald,

    ei heksegald

  faa vaar dronning ottefull;

  so god natt og bysselull.

 

  _Ein annan alv_:

  Ingi kongrov vil me sjaa,

  langbeint vevekjering, gakk!

  Svart tordivel, burt her fraa,

  burt med snigil og med makk!

 

  _Alle alvene_:

  Maaltrost, syng med tone full

  du med oss vaart bysselull:

  bysse, bysse, bysselull,

  bysse, bysse, bysselull,

    ei maa vald,

    ei heksegald

  faa vaar dronning ottefull;

  so god natt og bysselull.

 

    [35. Act II, Sc. 2.]

 

It is easy to draw upon this fragment for further examples of felicitous

translation. It is scarcely necessary, however. What has been given is

sufficient to show the rare skill of the translator. He is so fortunate

as to possess in a high degree what Bayard Taylor calls "secondary

inspiration," without which the work of a translator becomes a soulless

mass and frequently degenerates into the veriest drivel. Erik Eggen's

_Alveliv_ deserves a place in the same high company with Taylor's

_Faust_.

 

Nine years later, in 1912, Eggen returned to the task he had left

unfinished with the fairy scenes in _Syn og Segn_ and gave a complete

translation of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_. In a little prefatory note

he acknowledges his indebtedness to Arne Garborg, who critically

examined the manuscript and gave valuable suggestions and advice.

The introduction itself is a restatement in two pages of the

Shakespeare-Essex-Leicester-Elizabeth story. Shakespeare recalls the

festivities as he saw them in youth when he writes in Act II, Sc. 2:

 

      thou rememberest

  Since once I sat upon a promontory,

  And heard a mermaid upon a dolphin's back, etc.

 

And it is Elizabeth he has in mind when, in the same scene, we read:

 

  That very time I saw, but thou could'st not,

  Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

  Cupid all armed, etc.

 

All of this is given by way of background, and it is of little

importance to the general readers what modern Shakespeare scholars

may say of it.

 

Eggen has not been content merely to reprint in the complete translation

his earlier work from _Syn og Segn_, but he has made a thoroughgoing

revision.[36] It cannot be said to be altogether happy. Frequently, of

course, a line or phrase is improved or an awkward turn straightened

out, but, as a whole, the first version surpasses the second not in

poetic beauty merely, but in accuracy. Compare, for example, the two

renderings of the opening lines:

 

  SYN OG SEGN--1903

 

  _Nissen_:

  Kor no ande! seg, kvar skal du av?

 

      REVISION OF 1912

 

      _Tuften_:

      Hallo! Kvar skal du av, du vesle vette?

 

  _Alven_:

    Yver dal, yver fjell,

    gjenom vatn, gjenom eld,

    yver gras, yver grind,

    gjenom klunger so stinn,

  yver alt eg smett og kliv

  snøggare enn maanen sviv;

  eg i gras dei ringar doggar,

  der vaar mori dans seg voggar.

 

      _Alven_:

      Yver dal, yver fjell,

        gjenom vatn, gjenom eld,

      yver gras, yver grind,

        gjenom klunger so stinn,

      alle stad'r eg smett og kliv

      snøggare enn maanen sviv;

        eg dogge maa

        dei grøne straa

      som vaar dronning dansar paa.

 

  Hennar vakt mun symrur vera,

  gyllne klæde mun dei bera;

  sjaa dei stjernur alvar gav deim!

  Derfraa