Translations of Aslaug Vaa poems : [draft manuscripts]
- MS-2-232, Box 1, Folder 66
- File
- [194-?]
Part of Kenneth Leslie fonds
File contains three undated (likely in the 1940s) partial translations of poems originally written by the Norwegian poet Aslaug Vaa (b. Rauland,25 August 1889; d. Oslo, 28 November 1965) and translated by Kenneth Leslie.
File contains translations of the following poems:
- twenty-three lines of the poem "Skinnvengbrev," which begins "Eg tredde eingong du hadde gøymt deg, / at baade du og Gud ha gløymt meg, / og eg blei minst av dei skapte ting.", which Leslie has translated as "I thought one time you had forsaken me / that you and God had forgotten me / and I was least of created things." The header of this leaf has the title "So 6847 Pauline", and the English translation is written directly below the Norwegian original ;
- eight lines of translation of a fourteen line untitled poem, also presumably by Aslaug Vaa, which begins "A, so det vesle båmet reeddest / når det møter det ukjende. / Ein gong i eit framandt land, / sto eg og var dette ukjende for ein liten kropp", which Leslie has translated as "Of course a little child is frightened / when he meets with an unknown one. / Once upon a time on strange soil / I stood and was this unknown one for a little body." The Norwegian text and English translation are written on separate leaves ; and
- four stanzas of the poem 'Duva og Dropen,' which begins "Det kurra ei duve / med bekken Mahala / i skuggen av palmur / og driv kvite kala", which Leslie has translated as "A dove coos so warmly / where murmurs Mahala / In shade of the palm trees / and drifts of white kalla". This item also contains notes for a sermon about avarice written on the verso.