An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway Part 7

"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 t.i.tania's opening speech. After this there is a break till the entrance of Oberon. The dialogue between t.i.tania 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 t.i.tania 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 pa.s.sages Eggen has. .h.i.t 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 pa.s.sages. I like the rollicking humor of Puck's words:

Kor torer uhengt kjeltrings pakk daa skvaldre so naere 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 a.s.s's head, returns with Puck, and the simple players flee in terror and Puck exclaims:

Eg fylgjer dykk og frer 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 bjrn, snart flammetungur, og kneggjer, gyr og ryler, murrar, brenn, som hest, hund, gris, bjrn, varme--eitt um senn.

we give our unqualified admiration to the skill of the translator. Or, compare t.i.tania's instructions to the faries to serve her Bottom:

Ver venlege imot og ten den herren!

Dans vaent for augo hans, hopp der han gjeng!

Gjev aprikos og frukt fraa blaabaerlid, ei korg med druvur, fikjur, morbaer 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 f.a.ger 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 sael!

_t.i.tania_: Ten honom so! Leid honom til mitt rom!

Eg tykkjer maanen er i augo vaat; og naar han graet, daa graet kvar litin blom, og minnest daa ei tilnydd 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 laer, so tidt han gjev sin naeste smaa; men aldri svar han faer.

[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 t.i.tania to sleep:[35]

_Ein alv_: Spettut orm med tungur tvo, kva.s.s bust-igel, krjup kje her!

le, staal-orm, fara no, kom vaar alvemor ei naer!

_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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 ma.s.s 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 ma.n.u.script and gave valuable suggestions and advice.

The introduction itself is a restatement in two pages of the Shakespeare-Ess.e.x-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 surpa.s.ses 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 snggare 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 snggare enn maanen sviv; eg dogge maa dei grne straa som vaar dronning dansar paa.

Hennar vakt mun symrur vera, gyllne klaede mun dei bera; sjaa dei stjernur alvar gav deim!

Derfraa kjem all angen av deim.

Aa sanke dogg--til de eg kom; ei perle fester eg til kvar ein blom.

Far vel, du ande-styving! Eg maa vekk; vaar dronning er her ho paa fljugand' flekk.

Kvart nykelband er adelsmann, med ordenar dei glime kann; kvar blank rubin, paa bringa skin, utsender ange fin.

Doggdropar blanke skal eg sanke, mange, mange, dei skal hange kvar av hennar adels-mennar glimande i yra.

[36. William Shakespeare--_Jonsok Draumen_--Eit Gamenspel. Paa Norsk ved Erik Eggen. Oslo, 1912.]