Look with contentment at days passed,
and with calm toward your unknown destiny.
Keep your actions and intentions noble,
measured by your death, at last,
And rejoice: your eternity remains.
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I have a tendency to sink into dark places at times (not just menstrual times either damnit). As a survivor, I learned long ago to suck it u...
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As you can clearly see Humprey was looking dapper this morning when I checked on him on the way out the door for work. Stealing yet another...
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Quite philosophical and meditative ... and sort of peaceful.
It would be interesting to contrast your original version that you tried to translate with this versaion. Did the Swedish researcher help you?
A fellow I was introduced to in Second Life translated a few of the pages from Maria's autograph album. I only know his SL name Aake Roffo. If you click on the image in this post it will take you to the flickr image where he wrote his translations.
"And bite they unkown destiny"
I love this line ...... (( grin ))
That is really lovely.
You've done a great job researching all of this, I appreciate all your hard work. Thanks for sharing the info :)
Ha! Yeah i liked that line too Mom, lets just say between online Swedish translation limitations, and MOSTLY my inability to read/write that older Swedish my attempts at translating sucked. The Swedish fellow who did a few translations did mention there were some old words/phrases not in use these days that made some translating a little challenging.
Cheryl, I hope you don't mind me saying so, but with your grasp on the nuances of our language, and shear size of vocabulary, I bet YOU could do a fantastic job of translating the english translations into truly beautiful /meaningful prose while remaining true to the original intent. I just don't have the wordage skills you have to do this sort of thing any real justice.
I meant to also say, Thank you to you Cheryl, I don't really think I've done so much research, certainly not to the magnitude of "OldKentuckyCaver" and the gal who most recently contacted me...but have had a couple great little "leads" as a result of posting all the stuff you/Dad gave me online.
Did Maria write this poem?
As a former frustrated wannabe poet, it would be very meaningful to me to feel a connection with someone in our family that had the same inclination.
Then the inner dialogue that is almost always present in my head could be explained...it's genetics, not craziness lol!
Hee hee Cheryl! Inner dialog I have quite a bit too and am a little embarrassed to say sometimes I catch myself actually gesturing or responding out loud to the conversation taking place in my head (oh my!) especially when I'm stressed out.
I have no way of knowing for sure yet if Maria wrote these words, I suspect she did though. The words on the "introductory" page to her album she has signed. Which no disrespect intended to Aake, I think the English version could use your touch (if you felt inclined, of course).
Maria's Intro page
It seems I recall someone commenting on one of the pages that it was an old well-known Swedish poem... but it might have been one that someone else wrote in her book. I'm going to try and find that one.
Ah ha! I remembered correctly (how odd these days!) about the well-known poem. Interesting, as It is written in German:
Poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I'll think on it for a bit...let it marinate into my mind for awhile :)
This is really neat stuff you are digging up.
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