
Klefi/Samed (Chamber/Steadfast) - translation/commentary

This song has an official English translation. The music video has official subtitles. However, at least for the Icelandic parts this translation is fairly loose; it’s written as if they were writing new English lyrics communicating the same ideas, rather than translating the original lyrics exactly. That’s a sensible way to go about translating lyrics - you can aim for preserving things like meter and rhyme while getting the point across. However, for fans of the band, it’s fun to also know exactly what the original lyrics say!

Note that I don’t know Arabic; I can’t comment at all on the Arabic lyrics or how faithful the official translation of those is, except to note that the translation of those does not rhyme or otherwise bear the hallmarks of being translated loosely. If you know Arabic and know how faithful that translation is, by all means let me know so I can update this post! This post, though, will be focusing on the Icelandic lyrics only.

If you’d like to see other Hatari material transcribed/translated, feel free to drop an ask in my askbox!
Icelandic lyrics

MATTHÍAS:

Skrumskæling

Tómur klefi

Bergmálandi getuleysi

Hö!

Spegilsléttur, eingetinn efi

Spegilsléttur, eingetinn efi

Gargar hver í sínu hreysi

Hö!


Strengjabrúður

í tómum klefa,

einangraðar, getulausar

Hö!

Steytir hver

sínum hnefa

Afmyndaðir búkar án hausa


Gargar hver í sínu hreysi

(Hö!)

Gargar hver í sínu hreysi

(Hö!)


English translation

MATTHÍAS:

Distortion

An empty chamber

Echoing impotence

Huh!

Smooth as glass, immaculate doubt

Smooth as glass, immaculate doubt

Each one rants in their own hovel

Huh!


Marionettes

in an empty chamber

isolated, impotent

Huh!

Each one shakes

their own fist

Malformed bodies, without heads


Each one rants in their own hovel

(Huh!)

Each one rants in their own hovel

(Huh!)


Translation notes

The official translation of this one doesn’t just connect the ideas, but is pretty much entirely different and just uses the same basic images. The lines only occasionally even correspond to the equivalent line in Icelandic.

The lyrics here are pretty cryptic, and to be honest I had to stare at them for a while before they made much sense. The “immaculate” up there is literally as in immaculately conceived, or, in Icelandic, “one-conceived”, which I guess is really getting at one-sidedness. The Icelandic part of the song, then, describes the echo chamber where Israelis are fed a distorted, unilateral, smoothed-out narrative of doubting the international organizations condemning the occupation, and encouraged to blindly support whatever the government does - while Bashar describes the Palestinian experience.

In Icelandic, “klefi” can mean a chamber or a cell, such as a prison cell.
