Random translation fun

[ualarauans]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michael Erwin <merwin at ...> wrote:
>
> I mentioned before my efforts to translate labor-movement songs 
into
> Gothic - however anachronistic they may be. I paraphrase-translated
> the first verse and chorus of Ralph Chaplin's "Commonwealth of 
Toil"
> tonight. I'm not very good at this but practice makes ... better.
> 
> Commonwealth of Toil
> 
> by Ralph Chaplin
> 
> In the gloom of mighty cities
> mid the roar of whirling wheels
> we are toiling on like chattel slaves of old.
> And our masters ever seek
> to keep us thus beneath their feet
> and to coin our very life-blood into gold.
> 
> In sa skadus baurgim mikilaim
> miþ *hjulam *hvirandam
> arbaidjam samana skalkos aiwe sineiga.
> Jah unsar reikos lustand
> du haban uns atbrukjanda
> jah du *maunetan unsar bloþ du gulda.
> 
> Chorus:
> But we have a glowing dream
> of how fair the world will seem
> when we each can live our lives secure and free -
> when the earth is owned by labor
> and there's joy and peace for all
> in the commonwealth of toil that is to be.
> 
> Þan habam *glaujand draum af
> hvaiwa haila airþai wairþiþ
> hvan ains jah alls skulum libam in friþau -
> hvan gawaurstwans aigun airþa
> miþ leikainai jah freihala
> in þizos gamainons botos gawaurtswane.
> 
> (remaining verses not yet translated)
> 
> Okay, the first verse is much more literal than the chorus. I
> couldn't find any suitable common-Germanic root for either roar or
> whirl - the former is only attested in West-Germanic and the latter
> is first attested in North-Germanic - but decided that they were
> better than nothing (I ultimately chose WG "howl" over WG "roar").
> The other biggies were "coin," "glow," and, of 
course, "commonwealth."

For "wheel" I'd suggest Gothic *hvaéhvul or *hviwul (both N.-a) 
formed after PG reduplications *hwehwula- and *hwegwula- 
respectively. One can't be sure which variant – voiceless or voiced –
 was more likely to appear in Gothic (or did they co-exist like OE 
hwéol and hweogul?). "Mid the [roar of] whirling wheels" = in 
midjaim windandam hvaihvulam?

Another PG word for "wheel" is *raþa- (> NHG Rad). BTW, its Celtic 
cognate is attested as a part of the compound petor-ritum "four-
wheeled chariot". We could use *fidur-raþ N.-a (gen. –raþis) 
for "car" in Neo-Gothic. Then *twi-raþ is a bike ;-)

Go. kintus is attested for "small coin", "penny" (Gr. KODRANTHS). If 
we derive a verb we get *kinton wv. 2. Could be specialized for "to 
coin", I guess.

> (I wanted to avoid trying the ones with lines like "with one big
> industrial union" for the time being).
> 
> To make the meter more-or-less hang together (the syllable count
> should work but the rhythm won't), I subbed "in friþau" for "secure
> and free" - and subbed "freihala" for "peace" two lines later. Also
> dropped "that is to be."

-s in freihals is not the ending but a part of the stem. Hence dat. 
sg. freihalsa.

> Mike

Ualarauans

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