The Great Weaver From Kashmir (48 page)

39
Der mensch . . . (German): Man is something that must be defeated. Satan conduit . . . (French): Satan conducts the ball, a reference to the title of the book
Satan conduit le bal . . . Roman pamphletaire et philosophique des mœurs de temps
(1925), written by Georges Anquetil. This book had a great influence on
The Great Weaver from Kashmir
.

40
O crux, ave, spes unica (Latin): O cross, hail, my only hope.

41
Chi siete . . . (Italian): Who are you that emerges from the eternal silence?

42
Gieb, ja ergieb . . . (German): Hand yourself over to me, you most vicious of enemies. From Nietzsche's
Also Sprach Zarathustra
(1883–1885), Part 2, I, “Der Zauberer” (“The Magician”).

43
This translation of Soupault's poem is from the incomplete, unpublished translation of
The Great Weaver from Kashmir
made by Magnús Arason and Halldór Laxness in California in the 1920s, and that exists in manuscript form in the National Library of Iceland.

44
Urðhæð, Einbúi: Common generic names for mountains in Iceland (“Rocky Height” and “Hermit,” respectively).

45
Skerpla: The second month of summer in the old Icelandic calendar, beginning on the Saturday of the fifth week of summer (19–25 May).

46
Sólmánuður: The third month of summer according to the old Icelandic calendar, beginning on the Monday following the 17th of June.

47
“We certainly are great men, my dear Hrólfur”: This idiom is used in Iceland to silence or humble prideful or egotistical people . The idiom is associated with
Göngu-Hrólfs Saga
, one of the so-called “Legendary Sagas” (
fornaldarsögur
), mainly fantastical tales composed during the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries; in the saga a character named Vilhjálmur claims responsibility for some of Hrólfur's great deeds.

48
Possibly a reference to the romantic novel of the same name by the Anglo-Irish author and playwright E. Temple Thurston (1879–1933), published 1909 (and subsequently made into a film).

49
Wes' Brot ich eß, des' Lied ich sing (German): Whose bread I eat; whose song I sing. A German proverb, akin to “He who pays the piper calls the tune.”

50
Ubi bene. . . (Latin): Where one is well off, there is his country. Ubi pecunia… (Latin): Where there is money, there is one's country.

51
Messina is a seaside town in northeast Sicily. Catania is a seaside town in eastern Sicily, at the foot of Mount Etna.

52
An seinem . . . (German): God died of his pity for mankind, from Nietzsche's
Also Sprach Zarathustra
, Part 2, XXV, “Von den Mitleidigen” (“The Pitiful”).

53
Raskolnikov is the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky's (1821–1881)
Crime and Punishment
(published in 1866).

54
Di Signora Ellidaso (Italian): Of Signora Ellidaso (Madam Elliðason).

55
Il buono Dio (Italian): The good God.

56
Le bellezze della vita (Italian): The magnificence of life.

57
Soirée internationale (French): International evening party.

58
Isola Bella (Italian): “Beautiful Isle,” the name of an island near Taormina in Sicily.

59
Il Mondo
(Italian): The name of an Italian newspaper.

60
Terra nullius (Latin): No-man's land.

61
Rajputana (Rajputstan): A historic region of northwest India, coextensive with the modern state of Rajasthan.

62
Jaipur (Jeypore): The capital of the state of Rajasthan, India, known as the “Pink City.”

63
Vous vous en allez; moi, je reste (French): You go away, me, I will stay.

64
Crimine bestiali (Latin): Bestiality.

65
Der reine Verbrecher . . . (German): The purebred criminal is the only one who truly knows.

66
Pereat (Latin): Let her die.

67
In the spirit of Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901), a Swiss Symbolist painter.

68
Questa soglia . . . (Italian): This threshold divides two worlds. Mercy binds them.

69
È vero (Italian): It's true!

70
Nihil humani . . . (Latin): I consider nothing that concerns mankind alien to me, a famous Latin phrase used by the Roman playwright Terence (190–159 BC) in his play
Heauton Timoroumenos
(
The Self-Tormentor
).

71
Soldi (Italian): Italian currency (1 lira = 20 soldi).

72
Ego autem sum vermis . . . (Latin): Psalm 22:6 (But I am a worm and no man: a reproach of men, and despised of the people).

73
Ricordo di Taormina (Italian): A souvenir of Taormina.

74
Gran' signore (Italian): A great gentleman.

75
A fatto malo . . . (Italian): He hurt a little girl.

76
The Barber of Seville:
An opera by Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (1792–1868), first performed in February 1816.

77
Durch alle Töne . . . (German): Through all of the notes sounded a tender tone of love.

78
Saluti . . . (Italian): Greetings, greetings, Excellency.

79
Calabria: A region in southern Italy (the toe of the boot).

80
La vie, ça n'est jamais . . . (French): Life is never as good or as bad as people think.

81
Bêtes à bon dieu (French): Ladybugs.

82
Til det dansk-islandske . . . (Danish): To the Danish-Icelandic Consulate, Palermo. Sicily.

83
Rhodymenia palmata
is the scientific name for dulse (edible seaweed).

84
Il piacere (Italian): The bliss.

85
Om mani padme hum: A Tibetan mantra, “Hail to the jewel in the lotus,” intended to create and maintain a state of compassion, both in the chanter and the world.

86
Eli, Eli! (Latin): My God, my God; part of Christ's final words upon the cross (
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani,”
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

87
Pax (Latin): Peace; Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus (Latin): That God might be glorified in all things.

88
Gloria, misericordia, secula seculorum (Latin): Glory, mercy, ages of ages (now and forever, throughout the ages).

89
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa (Latin): Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; a phrase used in the Confiteor, a general confession recited in the Roman Rite at the beginning of Mass, in confession, and on other occasions in preparation for the reception of grace.

90
Respice in me, Deus . . . (Latin): Look upon me, God, and have mercy on me, for I am destitute and alone (Psalm 25:16).

91
Videtur ut non (Latin): It is not seen.

92
Unus Altissimus Jesus Christus (Latin): Jesus Christ, alone and highest (a variation on a phrase of the Gloria, a prayer in the Ordinary of the Catholic Mass).

93
De Imitatione Christi (Of the Imitation of Christ),
Book 2, 12:15.
De Imitatione Christi
is a great devotional work that is thought to have been written by the Dutch theologian and Augustinian Thomas à Kempis (1389–1471).

94
Regia via sanctæ crucis (Latin): The royal road of the holy cross. Book 2, chapter 12 of
De Imitatione Christi
bears the title “De regia via sanctæ crucis.”

95
Hanc regiam viam quæ est via cruces (Latin): Here, the royal road, which is also the road of the cross.

96
In the cross is good fortune . . .: This passage, loosely translated from
The
Imitation of Christ,
Book II, chapter XII.

97
In manu tua sum (Latin): Into your hands (from the seven last words of Christ upon the cross).

98
Fait son droit (French): Fulfilled his (academic) duties.

99
Ancilla veritatis (Latin): Envoy of the truth.

100
Anima naturaliter christiana (Latin): “The soul of man is Christian by nature,” a famous statement made by the Roman lawyer (and Church Father) Tertullian (born ca. 160) in his
Apologeticus
(a defense of the Christian religion against the pagans).

101
Rien n'est plus désagréable que d'être pendu obscurément (French): Nothing is more disagreeable than to be hanged in obscurity.

102
Staffage zu gewissen Ideen (German): Afterthoughts; accessories to fixed ideas (figures in paintings that are secondary to the main concept are called
Staffage
in German).

103
Secundum intentionem puram (Latin): From pure intent.

104
Propter regnum coelorum (Latin): For the Kingdom of Heaven.

105
The English translation of this poem is, like the Soupault poem earlier, from the Arason/Laxness translation of
The Great Weaver
from the 1920s.

106
Oblatus secularis (Latin): Secular oblation; worldly service (an obligatory regulation, without being attached to it).

107
Credo in unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam (Latin): Part of the Creed, “I believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.”

108
A ship came out to Leiruvogur: This is a translation of a line from the medieval saga
Egils saga Skallagrímssonar (The Saga of Egill Skallagrímsson),
ch. 79: “Þat var eitt sumar, at skip kom út í Leiruvági . . .” (“One summer a ship put in at Leiruvogur”). The ship's captain is a man named Þormóðr, and he brings Egill a shield sent by Þorsteinn Þóruson in Norway; Egill composes a verse in thanks (Egill is living at the time in Mosfell, where Halldór Laxness grew up). Leiruvogur is in Kollafjörður, the bay bordering Reykjavík. The references to viking “activities” (battles, shipwreck, head-ransoms) at the end of this chapter are for the most part direct allusions to events in the life of Egill Skallagrímsson.
(Egils saga Skallagrímssonar,
ed. Sigurður Nordal, Íslensk Fornrit, Reykjavík, 1933, p. 275.)

109
Mörður Fiddle (Mörðr Gígja): the name of one of the main characters in
Njáls Saga
, one of the greatest of the medieval Icelandic sagas.

110
Sagaöen (Norwegian): Island of sagas; that is, Iceland.

111
Kleppur: The name of a mental hospital in Reykjavík.

112
Skyr: A traditional Icelandic food, smooth curds made from skimmed milk and cheese rennet.

113
Tíminn:
An Icelandic newspaper, founded in Reykjavík as a weekly paper in 1917, published as a daily paper since 1947.
Tíminn
has been the mouthpiece for the Progressive Party since 1938.

114
Mein Herz pocht wild beweglich . . . (German): From the song “Die Meerfrau,” written by the German poet Heinrich Heine, and set to music by the German composer and conductor Franz Paul Lachner (1803–1890) (“My heart pounds so wildly turbulent, it pounds so turbulently wild: I love you so unspeakably, you shining human child.”

115
O mighty Lord of Israel . . . : From
The Imitation of Christ,
Book Three, chapter XX (“Confessing Our Weaknesses in the Miseries of Life”).

116
Qui, qui . . . (Italian): “Here, here, in this very orchard, you could . . .”

117
De profundis . . .: Psalm 130:1–8.

118
I love him, because the Lord heard . . . : Psalm 116:1–9.

119
Ford: The American businessman Henry Ford's autobiographical work,
Today and Tomorrow
, originally published in 1926, was read in Iceland in Danish translation,
Idag og imorgen
. Dr. Helgi Pjeturss: Helgi Pjeturss (1872–1949), the first Icelander to earn a B.A. in geology. He later devoted himself to philosophy and psychology.

120
Det var en vas med roser: There was a vase with roses. (Apparently Swedish, but with
roser
misspelled (should be
rosor
)). Unidentified quotation.

121
In Icelandic folktales, a
sending
is a ghost conjured and sent by a sorcerer to attack an enemy.

122
Sicut tenebrae ejus sicut et lumen ejus (Latin): “And as is his darkness, so is his light” (Psalm 139:12).

123
Völuspá:
The
Völuspá
(the “Prophecy of the Sybil”) is a famous mythological poem from the
Elder Edda
, a collection of poems dealing with ancient Scandinavian mythological and legendary subjects. In the
Völuspá
a sybil relates the story of the creation and destruction of the world, predicting the creation of a new world following Ragnarök, the final battle between the ancient Scandinavian gods and giants.

124
Fais le testament . . . (French): Make a pact between your intellect and your heart; that is the most useful thing that you can do.

125
Three holy elders in Tolstoy's folktales: A reference to the story, “The Three Hermits,” published in 1886.

126
Bonjour, monsieur . . . (French): Good day, Mr. Devil! I am charmed to see you. How are you? May I offer you a seat?

127
A variation on an another Icelandic idiomatic expression,
“Rúsínan í pylsuendanum”
(“The raisin at the end of the sausage”) akin to English “Icing on the cake.”

128
Laetatus sum . . . (Latin): I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord (Psalm 121:1).

129
Stantes erant . . . (Latin): Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem (Psalm 121:2).

130
The elder from Yasnaya Polyana is Leo Tolstoy.

131
Maintenant c'est . . . (French): Now is the exact moment for eating.

132
Ich hab' meine . . . (German): “I placed my trust in nothing, and the whole world belongs to me,” from the poem “Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!” published in 1806 by Goethe.