
Spillingardans (Corruption Dance) - translation/commentary

This song has an official English translation. The music video has official subtitles. However, 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!

Also be sure to check out my Spillingardans cultural context post, for some fun context behind this one.

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

MATTHÍAS:

Spillingardans

Hvarvetna alþjóð dansar þennan vals

Neyslutrans

Gróðafíkn og nautnarfans

Gróðafíkn og nautnarfans

Kapítalistar andskotans

Hö!


Spillingardans

Hvaðanæva - sjö milljarðar manns

Neyslutrans

Gróðafíkn og nautnarfans

Nýju föt fasistans


KLEMENS:

Hvar varst þú?

Hvert förum við nú,

fyrirmyndarland?


Hvar var ég?

Veit ei hvaðan ég kem

né hvert ég fer


Hvar varst þú?

fyrirmyndarland?


Hvar var ég?

Veit ei hvaðan ég kem

né hvert ég fer


MATTHÍAS:

Spillingardans!

Hvarvetna alþjóð dansar þennan vals

Neyslutrans

Allsherjarópíum aumingjans

Vökul hendi kúgarans

Nýju föt fasistans

Veldissproti hégómans

Gróðafíkn og nautnarfans

Kapítalistar andskotans!


English translation

MATTHÍAS:

Corruption dance

Every nation dances this waltz

Consumption trance

Avarice and hedonism

Avarice and hedonism

Fucking capitalists

Huh!


Corruption dance

From everywhere - seven billion people

Consumption trance

Avarice and hedonism

The fascist’s new clothes


KLEMENS:

Where were you?

Where do we go now,

model country?


Where was I?

Don’t know where I come from

or where I’m going


Where were you,

model country?


Where was I?

Don’t know where I come from

or where I’m going


MATTHÍAS:

Corruption dance!

Every nation dances this waltz

Consumption trance

The opium of the pathetic masses

The wakeful hand of the oppressor

The fascist’s new clothes

The scepter of vanity

Avarice and hedonism

Fucking capitalists!


Translation notes

As I mentioned in my “Hatrið mun sigra” post, the new English translations tend to connect the ideas a bit more than in the original, and that’s definitely the case here. Matthías’s parts in this song originally consist basically entirely of these strong images or exclamations, rather than full sentences - so, for instance, where the official translation goes “On avarice and greed / lust, extravagance / damned capitalists feed”, the actual Icelandic is just “Avarice and hedonism / Avarice and hedonism / Fucking capitalists”. Later the official English translation has “Their avarice just grows”; in the original lyrics, this is just the exact same “Avarice and hedonism” line as before.

Speaking of, “Gróðafíkn og nautnarfans” took some thought to translate. Both of these are compound words. Gróðafíkn means “profit-addiction”, and nautnarfans could be translated as something like “a wealth of indulgences”, but obviously the direct translation would make for a very kludgy, awkward line in English. In my cultural context post, I translated this line from the Spillingadans comedy sketch as ‘obsessive greed and hedonism’, which I still didn’t really like. Then I looked at the official translation of Spillingardans again and actually, avarice is a very good translation of gróðafíkn and “Avarice and hedonism” sounds okay as a line.

“Nýju föt fasistans” is clearly a reference to H.C. Andersen’s fairy tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, so I’m surprised the official translation went with “the fascist’s newest clothes”. I imagine what they’re getting at with this line is simultaneously that this is the latest incarnation of fascism and that they’re very much still fascists - they’re not really wearing anything, though nobody dares to call it out.

“Allsherjarópíum aumingjans”, meanwhile, would more literally be translated as something like “The universal opium of the weakling”, but “The opium of the pathetic masses” just sounds better.

The final verse unfortunately can’t be translated to maintain quite the same feel as in the original. Each line starting with “Allsherjarópíum aumingjans” has the same core rhythm to it, ending in a three-syllable word ending in -ans - and this builds really neatly up to the last two lines, which have fit that rhythmic pattern all along. Much like in “Ógleði”, they’re making use of common Icelandic word endings: “-ans” is the definite article ending for a masculine word in the genitive (possessive) case, and all but one of these lines are in the form “[X] [Y]ans”, or “the X of the Y”. “Gróðafíkn og nautnarfans” breaks the pattern, but just happens to end with a three-syllable word ending in “-ans” anyway, so it fits right in after that buildup. (And of course, “Kapítalistar andskotans” is literally “The capitalists of the devil”). The buildup of this verse is hypnotic and the way the song then cuts off very suddenly after it sort of jars you out of it, like you almost got caught up in the corruption dance and consumption trance just there.

tl;dr lyrics good, we are all being whipped by capitalism
