
Niðurlút (Despondent) - transcript/translation

This is the final song of Hatari’s album Neyslutrans, a collaboration with GDRN. It’s kind of a remix of “Nunquam Iterum” and the two share most of their lyrics, but here’s “Niðurlút” itself for good measure.
Icelandic transcript

KLEMENS:

Þú tæmdir allt þitt traust á mér

Þó tórir enn mín ást á þér

Sagan endar allt of skjótt

Þú baðst mig aldrei góða nótt

góða nótt

 

Þú baðst mig aldrei góða nótt

Þú baðst mig aldrei góða nótt

góða nótt

 

GDRN:

Svikin voru silkimjúk,

sængin tóm og vænisjúk

Í þögn þú komst og þögul út

Þú þræddir veginn niðurlút

niðurlút

niðurlút

niðurlút

 

GDRN/KLEMENS:

Svikin voru silkimjúk,

sængin tóm og vænisjúk

Þú tæmdir allt þitt traust á mér

Þó tórir enn mín ást á þér

Sagan endar allt of skjótt

Þú baðst mig aldrei góða nótt

Í þögn þú komst og þögul út

Þú þræddir veginn niðurlút

niðurlút

 

Þú þræddir veginn niðurlút

Þú bast um okkar endahnút


Transcription notes

Most of the lines here are simply identical to corresponding lines in “Nunquam Iterum”, except that while “Nunquam Iterum” has “Þú bauðst mér aldrei góða nótt”, “Niðurlút” consistently seems to use “Þú baðst mig aldrei góða nótt”. The difference between the two is that the former uses the verb bjóða, which means to offer or invite, while the latter uses the verb biðja, which means to request or pray. (The “mér”/“mig” difference is according to what these two different verbs dictate for their object.) I’m pretty sure “bjóða góða nótt” is the actual correct phrase - you’re inviting them to have a good night, not requesting a good night from them, and when biðja carries a second object that should be in the genitive case so then technically it should be “biðja mig góðrar nætur” - but I’m also pretty sure this is one of those common confusions and people often misinterpret the phrase to have biðja rather than bjóða. So, in other words, I believe this is simply an error.


English translation

KLEMENS:

You emptied all your trust in me

Yet my love for you remains

The story ends far too soon

You never bid me good night

good night

 

You never bid me good night

You never bid me good night

good night

 

GDRN:

The betrayal was smooth as silk,

the bed empty and paranoid

In silence you came and silent you left

You threaded the path, despondent

despondent

despondent

despondent

 

GDRN/KLEMENS:

The betrayal was smooth as silk,

the bed empty and paranoid

You emptied all your trust in me

Yet my love for you remains

The story ends far too soon

You never bid me good night

In silence you came and silent you left

You threaded the path, despondent

despondent

 

You threaded the path, despondent

You brought us to a close


Translation notes

The title, “Niðurlút”, technically means someone who is looking down, but also implies the person is sad or despondent, which I ended up feeling was a better word - I don’t feel like people often speak of a person being downcast in English, although I could be wrong.

The final line, “Þú bast um okkar endahnút” literally means “You tied our final knot”. To tie the final knot on something is an Icelandic figure of speech meaning to finish or wrap something up, which I don’t think I’ve heard in English. I like that line a lot - it implies you ended us, but in a sort of way that perhaps implies a more neat, perhaps inevitable ending than your average breakup.

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Anonymous: hello! i've been wondering about Niðurlút and Nunquam Iterum. about what the lyrics could potentially mean, specifically. some of it makes me think it's obviously alluding to a break-up due to maybe cheating? (emptied trust, paranoid bed) while some other lines seem to strongly hint at death. do you have any particular interpretation/idea? xx

I think there’s definitely a break-up implied by the talk of betrayal and emptied trust (and the last line of Niðurlút). There is absolutely imagery reminiscent of death, but it could just represent grief at the loss of the relationship - the narrator is clearly mourning the loss of “you”, but that could simply be the loss of them from their life.

An intriguing possibility, though, is that it’s both. They had a bad breakup, and then “you” died.

The interpretation I think I’m personally partial to is this: the narrator cheated on “you”, and then “you” found out and walked out (you emptied all your trust in me; the bed empty and paranoid; in silence you came and silent you left). Later, before the two ever met again, “you” perished in some kind of accident, leaving the narrator sorting through conflicted feelings: their still-lingering feelings for “you” (yet my love for you remains; I dream of you, sentimental), memories of their relationship (in the consecrated city of memories, I morosely walk the hidden squares), guilt for betraying “your” trust (you emptied all your trust in me; you threaded the path, despondent), and regret that things ended so suddenly and now they truly will never see “you” again (the story ends far too soon; you never bid me good night; it never crossed my mind that we would never see each other again).
