Übersetzung - Isländisch-Englisch - Beautiful Icelandic song/poetry (Sigur Ros and Steindor Anderson)

The request can be interpreted differently since it is a poem. This version seems to be ok, but let me start with the first verse:
"dalabarnsins" dalur -> valley
"jökulhjarnsins" hjarn -> crust of snow (I guess this "crust" can be found at the top of the glacier as well)

Thank you Ernst.

About 'dalabarnsins': I've never heard this word (but I'm a beginner at Icelandic) not in my BIG dictionary and it can't be found on the net either. Could it be a local word? Don't know if it makes sense... but the original rímur was once written by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson (who lived in West Island) In this region there is a county named Dalasýsla, and according to my dictionary, you can call a man from that county a "dalamaður". Could 'dalabarnsins' refer to children native to the region?

I could change the last row -> up to the frozen crust on the glacier if that is closer to the original, no probs

Do you have any suggestions Ernst, how to translate this first part?

CC: Bamsa

You are right about "dalabarnsins", you can not find it because it is a compound word: "dalur" and "barn". Off course you can call a man "dalamaður" from that region. The problem is that there are a lot of names where "dalur" is a part of the name. E.g. Lítlidalur, Stóridalur, Efstidalur etc.
Anyway "walley" in your translation has to be corrected.
I don't know how to say "jökulhjarnsins" better, because I don't know if the poet thought about the top of the glaicer or that place where the glaicer start. Just let it as it is because "up to the top of the glaicer" sounds better than "up to the frozen crust on the glacier" maybe someone else have a better idea.

"...tempt the child of the region" Is that ok?

Ernst: do you have any other suggestions for what to write instead of walley? I guess I don't understand the meaning of this word :/

What you wrote is ok except: walley -> valley

I never saw the misspelling, thank you! I thought I had misunderstood the word COMPLETELY.

Lilian, I don't dare edit, since you have set a poll. Could you please fix it?

CC: lilian canale

Hi Ernst,

Would you say Pia's version is fine?
I'm afraid I'll have to trust your input to accept the translation because there will be no other votes.

Ops!


CC: Bamsa

It is not a literal translation, which would be impossible. It can be said in many ways, since it is a poem. You can accept it as it is

Oh, I tried to stick to the original as close as possible, because that's the only way I could translate it (almost impossible to keep the rhyme in English). I would say this IS a literal translation -much more than a free, poetic one :-D