Biðröð mistaka (A Line of Mistakes) - official translation/commentary

This is it, the final Hatari song to be covered here! …Unless I manage to decipher “Helvíti”, I suppose. Also known as the second song from the KEXPort video.

This song is on the Neysluvara EP. The official English translations for these songs are all quite faithful and translated in the same spirit as I’ve been translating here - so rather than arbitrarily retranslating them, I’ll just be publishing the official lyrics and translation (though reformatted in my usual way) and then writing some notes on that translation, in the vein of what I usually do.

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

MATTHÍAS:

Aragrúi vonlausra væntinga

eins og óútfyllanlegt eyðublað

Ótæmandi listi vonbrigða, sjálfsvorkunnar,

vottaður stimpli fyrirlitningar


Dagur sérhver

biðröð mistaka

Biðröð mistaka


Reginskari hálfreyndra hugmynda

eins og ástarbréf ofan í tætara

Ævistarfi raðað í kompuna, neðstu hilluna

Ólesnir, rykfallnir doðrantar


Dagur sérhver

biðröð mistaka

Biðröð mistaka


KLEMENS:

Nauðbeygður opnarðu augun,

þú vissir aldrei að ég elska þig – þú varst hatari

Þrálátur en samt svo þögull,

hrópandinn í eyðimörkinni  – þú hataðir


Nauðbeygður opnarðu augun,

þú vissir aldrei að ég elska þig – þú varst hatari

Þrálátur en samt svo þögull,

hrópandinn í eyðimörkinni  – þú hataðir


MATTHÍAS:

Biðröð mistaka


Eins og ástarbréf ofan í tætara

Aragrúi

Aragrúi vonlausra væntinga

Biðröð mistaka


Official English translation

MATTHÍAS:

A multitude of hopeless expectations

like an unfillable form

An inexhaustible list of disappointments, self-pity,

bears the seal of contempt


Every single day

a line of mistakes

A line of mistakes


An immense swarm of half-attempted ideas

like a love letter in a paper shredder

Your life’s work arranged in a storage room, on the lowest shelf,

unread, dusty tomes


Every single day

a line of mistakes

A line of mistakes


KLEMENS:

Forced to open your eyes,

you never knew that I love you – you hated

Persistent yet so silent,

the crier in the desert – you hated


Forced to open your eyes,

you never knew that I love you – you hated

Persistent yet so silent,

the crier in the desert – you hated


MATTHÍAS:

A line of mistakes


Like a love letter in a paper shredder

A multitude

A multitude of hopeless expectations

A line of mistakes


Notes

As I’ve mentioned before, “biðröð” specifically means the queue kind of line. “Mistaka” is the genitive (possessive) form of “mistök”, which is an always-plural word meaning mistake(s). I’ve seen lots of people trying to create derivatives that go “Biðröð [something]”; keep in mind that you’re going to have to make sure the something is in the genitive case in order for it to make any kind of grammatical sense, since e.g. “Biðröð hatarar” just nonsensically means “a line haters”, not “a line of haters”. Likewise, if you want mistakes in Icelandic, you probably want “mistök”, unless you’re using it in an Icelandic sentence in a context calling for the genitive.

The translation is quite straightforward here and I have no real nitpicks, but one noteworthy nuance can’t be translated: thanks to the fact adjectives take different forms depending on gender in Icelandic, in the original lyrics the person Klemens is addressing in his verse is specifically male. If he were talking about a woman, it’d have to be “Nauðbeygð opnarðu augun” and “Þrálát en samt svo þögul”.

The “crier in the desert” is someone who shouts, not someone who weeps.
