
CYBER ft. Emmsjé Gauti - Snákar (Snakes) - transcript/translation

This one was difficult to transcribe, full of very slurred lyrics, slang and references. My original transcript was total incoherent nonsense and I just kind of threw up my hands and went “maybe this is all a bunch of weird drug slang or something”. Later, though, I got my hands on the official lyrics for the song and retranscribed it, and it’s a lot easier to tell what it’s on about, though it’s still not entirely transparent.

Please do scroll down to the translation notes, I really want to tell you about this one amazing completely untranslateable pun in here. Content warning for drugs and sexuality (including a couple that are “a little bit related”, apparently).
Icelandic transcript

CYBER:

Strákarnir í fjörunni

sitja og grafa, sitja og grafa, sitja og grafa

Snákarnir í körfunni

sleikja og stara, sleikja og stara, sleikja og stara

 

Liggjum og reykjum og sleikjum allt af

Tökum og neytum, þú hleypur af stað

Svíður ekki lengur, þú sleiktir allt af

Skríður undir sandi og þú stígur á það

 

Blóð í sandi, blóð í sandi, blóð í sandi, á

Vatn í munni, rauður runni, blóð og landi, á

Sitja kyrr og bíða, hlusta, hlusta á sárið, á

Sleikja og stara, reykja aðra, blæða út í, á

 

Stingum og gleypum, þú kremur allt af

Lemjum og drepum, við reynum á það

Aldrei fara aftur, ef þú ferð þá fer það

Finndu fyrir öllu, ég sker það allt af

 

Skríður og bíður, þú stígur á það

Skríður og svíður, þú hleypur af stað

Bíður eftir merki, ég bíð og gef það

Skríður undan verki, verkið var mitt, brah

 

Strákarnir í fjörunni

sitja og grafa, sitja og grafa, sitja og grafa

Snákarnir í körfunni

sleikja og stara, sleikja og stara, sleikja og stara

 

Liggja og lama, liggja og lama, liggja og lamast, ah!

Reyna að fara, reyna að fara, reyna að farast, ah!

Og mig langar helst ekki að tala, mig langar helst ekki að tapa

Hugsanir hlaupa hratt í hringi og ég eltist við það að rata
 

Þess vegna vildi ég helst það væri snara

Reyna að hlaða hratt en næ ekki alveg að klára

Snaran snýst í hringi, kirkjubjöllum hringi

Útlimunum slengur, últímatum kyngir
 

Sæti mitt er laust (laust)

Gleymist úti og fraust (laust)

Snerti þig, þú naust (kaust)

að sýna mér traust (laugst)


Elskan, elskan, sérðu eftir því að ég faust?

Sálarlaust og selt þú kaust að svíkja mig virðingarlaust?

 

Liggjum og reykjum, þú sveikst og tókst það

Störum og sleikjum, þú veist þú vilt það

Ég tek það allt aftur, skaða í þinn stað

Skara framar í öllu, því ég faust, maður
 

Strákarnir í fjörunni

sitja og grafa, sitja og grafa, sitja og grafa

Snákarnir í körfunni

sleikja og stara, sleikja og stara, sleikja og stara
 

EMMSJÉ GAUTI:

Ég finn það á mér, það er eitthvað sem þú vilt mér

Ég finn það á mér, þú ert eitthvað pínu villt hér

Samkvæmt bókinni þá ertu pínu skyld mér

Endum samt svo bæði úr að ofan eins og Big Ben
 

Jónas í vasanum eins og heimsskáldin, fattarðu

Lífið lyginni líkast, ég er eins og námskeið í Haraldnum

Ta-talaðu, talaðu, fíla að vera hataður

en ég drep þig í letri og verð svo kallaður Arnaldur

 

Moðerfokker, já, bakkaðu, ó!

Varstu á rananum, ó!

Varstu á skallanum, só!

Þú verður skallaður
 

Ég tipla á tánum til að týnast ekki í tonnataki

Taktu til í tönnunum og tryggðu typpi í tonnatali
 

Grafísk hönnun, alveg lógó

Tók í burtu - tók en fór þó

Forljót sál en flottir skór, þó

Seyðisfjörður, París, Tókýó

Ljótir strákar elska kókó

Ljótar stelpur hata fómó

Apalæti, klink í Bóbó

Poki af dicks sem fást í Costco
 

CYBER:

Strákarnir í fjörunni

sitja og grafa, sitja og grafa, sitja og grafa

Snákarnir í körfunni

sleikja og stara, sleikja og stara, sleikja og stara
 

Strákarnir (nir nir nir nir)

sitja og grafa, skrafa, skrafa, sitja og grafa

Snákarnir (nir nir nir nir)

sleikja og stara stara stara stara stara
 
English translation

CYBER:

The boys on the beach

sit and dig, sit and dig, sit and dig

The snakes in the basket

lick and stare, lick and stare, lick and stare
 

Let’s lie and smoke and lick everything off

Take and consume, you take off running

Doesn’t sting anymore, you licked it all off

Crawling under the sand and you step on it
 

Blood in the sand, blood in the sand, blood in the sand, ow

Watering mouth, red bush, blood and spirit, ow

Sit still and wait, listen, listen to the wound, ow

Lick and stare, smoke another, bleed into, ow
 

Stab and devour, you crush everything off

Hit and kill, we’ll give it a try

Never go again, if you go it’ll go away

Feel everything, I’ll cut it all off
 

Crawling and waiting, you step on it

Crawling and stinging, you set off running

Wait for a signal, I wait and give it

Getting out of a job, the job was mine, brah
 

The boys on the beach

sit and dig, sit and dig, sit and dig

The snakes in the basket

lick and stare, lick and stare, lick and stare
 

Lying and paralyzing, lying and paralyzing, lying and getting paralyzed, ah!

Trying to go, trying to go, trying to die, ah!

And I’d rather not talk about, rather not lose

Thoughts run in quick circles and I chase them down to navigate
 

That’s why I’d rather there was a lasso

Try to charge quickly but can’t quite finish

The lasso rotates in circles, rings churchbells

Slinging limbs, swallowing the ultimatum
 

My seat’s free (free)

Left outside and froze (free)

I touched you, you enjoyed (chose)

putting your trust in me (lied)
 

Darling, darling, do you regret how I left?

Soulless and sold, you chose to betray me with no respect?
 

We sit and smoke, you cheated and took it

We stare and make out, you know you want it

I take it all back, all harm done to you

I excel at everything because I left, man
 

The boys on the beach

sit and dig, sit and dig, sit and dig

The snakes in the basket

lick and stare, lick and stare, lick and stare
 

EMMSJÉ GAUTI:

I can feel it, there’s something you want with me

I can feel it, you’re a little bit lost here

On the books you’re a little bit related to me

But we still both end up with our shirts off like Big Ben

 

Jónas in my pocket like the world’s great poets, get it

Life’s stranger than fiction, I’m like a crash-course in the Haraldur

Ta-talk, talk, I love to be hated

but I’ll kill you in writing and then they’ll call me Arnaldur

 

Motherfucker, yeah, back up, oh!

Were you high, oh!

Were you wasted, so?

You’ll be headbutted
 

I tiptoe often so I don’t get lost in superglue

Clean your teeth and you’ll get a ton of dick
 

Graphic design, totally logo

Took away - took but still left

A hideous soul but cool shoes, though

Seyðisfjörður, Paris, Tokyo

Ugly boys love cocoa

Ugly girls hate FOMO

Monkey business, coins for Bóbó

Bag of dicks that’s sold at Costco
 

CYBER:

The boys on the beach

sit and dig, sit and dig, sit and dig

The snakes in the basket

lick and stare, lick and stare, lick and stare
 

The boys (boys boys boys boys)

sit and dig, chat, chat, sit and dig

The snakes (snakes snakes snakes snakes)

lick and stare stare stare stare stare


Translation notes

Many thanks to @rivers90hatari​ who got me the lyrics as written in a lyrics booklet, which cleared up a lot of stuff here and got this all to make a bit more sense. The written lyrics contain various off-kilter spelling etc., so I figured I’d let my transcript be more written to be more ‘correct’ for the sake of those of you who are studying Icelandic, but to be clear, the official lyrics look a little different.

The word “faust” is used twice in the written lyrics and… I have no idea what that’s supposed to be? It sounds like a middle-voice verb, but I’m drawing a blank as to what the verb is, even if I assume it’s a ‘slurred’ spelling of it. Maybe I’m just having a brainfart, but I’m not finding anything by Googling either. Just from the context it sounds like it refers to a breakup, so I translated it as “left”, but please be aware that this is a context-based guess.

“But we still both end up with our shirts off like Big Ben” sounds like the most cryptic nonsensical line ever written, but it’s actually an amazing Icelandic pun. The Icelandic line is “Endum samt svo bæði úr að ofan eins og Big Ben”. Úr að ofan, which I translated “with our shirts off”, literally means “out on top” - basically, you’re out [of your clothes] on the top half of your body. However, úr also means a watch, as in a wristwatch - so úr að ofan could also technically mean “a watch on top”. Like Big Ben, the tower with a clock on top of it. It took me a couple listens to even get it but once I did, oh my god. Obviously this is in no way translateable, so nonsense line with a translation note it is.

“Jónas” is presumably referring to early nineteenth-century poet Jónas Hallgrímsson, perhaps the most famous Icelandic poet, who played a part in the Icelandic independence movement.

Unfortunately I have no idea what the “crash-course in the Haraldur” is about; Haraldur is a common Icelandic name, and there’s no way to find out what Haraldur is being referenced here given I didn’t immediately know. If you do know, please tell me!

“but I’ll kill you in writing and then they’ll call me Arnaldur” is referencing beloved mystery writer Arnaldur Indriðason - presumably, by killing someone in writing, Emmsjé Gauti will be comparable to him.

Seyðisfjörður is a town in Iceland with a population of some 700ish people; putting it next to Paris and Tokyo sounds pretty absurd.

“Monkey business, coins for Bóbó” seems to be a reference to a coin-operated fortunetelling monkey named Bóbó that used to be in Eden, a flower shop slash café in Hveragerði (another Icelandic town of about 2700 inhabitants) that burned down in 2011. That’s incredibly obscure and I was not expecting to actually get a definitive result by googling ‘Bóbó’, but given the connection both to “monkey business” and coins, I can’t imagine it’s not a reference to that.

A Costco store opened in Iceland in May 2017; it would’ve been new when CYBER’s Horror album came out.
