Tortímandi (Eradicator) - official translation/commentary

Time for “Tortímandi” and its very poetic, eccentric line splits and formatting as it bombards you with unsettling imagery about fascism!

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:

Hann er þögull

   sem múrveggur

hávær

   sem handleggur

brotinn

   í agnir niður

aumkun

   sem engu nemur

öskur

   sem hamar og meitill

höggstaður

   alráður

hatur

   sem flóðbylgjur

ótti

   óheflaður


Kunnuglegur tortímandi

Styrkri hendi mundar spjótið


Við erum brothætt

   sem heimsálfa

hangir

   á bláþræði

heróp

   í bergmáli

aumkun

   sem engu nemur

öskur

   sem hamar og meitill

höggstaður

   alráður

hatur

   sem flóðbylgjur

ótti

   óheflaður


Kunnuglegur tortímandi

Styrkri hendi mundar spjótið

Kunnuglegur tortímandi

Styrkri hendi mundar spjótið


KLEMENS:

Allt sem þú aldrei varst

aldrei varðst

aldrei varst

Bréfið sem aldrei barst

aldrei barst

aldrei barst

Klettsbrún af hverri þú dast

hverri þú dast

hverri þú dast

Allt sem þú aldrei varst

aldrei verður

aldrei varst


Allt sem þú aldrei -


MATTHÍAS:

Kunnuglegur tortímandi

Styrkri hendi mundar spjótið

Kunnuglegur tortímandi

Styrkri hendi mundar spjótið


Official English translation

MATTHÍAS:

He is silent

   as a wall

loud

   as an arm

smashed

   to smithereens

pity

   nearly nil

a scream

   like a hammer and chisel

a weak spot

   arbiter

hatred

   like tidal waves

fear

   unchecked


Familiar eradicator

Strong of hand aims the spear


We are fragile

   as a continent

hanging

   by a thread

battle cry

   in an echo

pity

   nearly nil

a scream

   like a hammer and sickle

a weak spot

   arbiter

hatred

   like tidal waves

fear

   unchecked


Familiar eradicator

Strong of hand aims the spear

Familiar eradicator

Strong of hand aims the spear


KLEMENS:

All that you never were

never became

never were

The letter that never came

never came

never came

The cliff off which you fell

which you fell

which you fell

All that you never were

never will be

never were


All that you never -


MATTHÍAS:

Familiar eradicator

Strong of hand aims the spear

Familiar eradicator

Strong of hand aims the spear


Notes

I have one real niggle with this translation: for some reason, the first “hamar og meitil” is translated (correctly) as “hammer and chisel”, but the second instance of the exact same line in the exact same context is translated (incorrectly) as “hammer and sickle”. I honestly think this may just plain be a typo - “hammer and sickle” is a more common phrase that I can easily see your brain just autofilling when you’re trying to say “hammer and chisel”. But given the hammer and sickle’s strong association with the Soviet Union, it’s possible they intentionally made the reference (…only in one spot out of two, only in the English translation) given the themes of authoritarianism and dictatorship in the song.

That being said, I think in English you’d more naturally talk about a “mallet and chisel”? If I Google “hammer and chisel” I just get some kind of bodybuilding program. We use the word “hamar” for both.

You know how in The People Behind the Costumes, Einar says Klemens recruited his cousin Matthías to scream some poems he (Matthías) had written over some electronic music he (Klemens) had composed? It would definitely not surprise me if “Tortímandi” (or at least the two main verses) was a poem that Matthías had written before they turned it into a song. The lyrical formatting, with the really short lines and those indents (I’m not sure if you’ll be able to see the indents on mobile because mobile Tumblr is terrible, but oh well), really looks like written poetry and not song lyrics, and if this were being written as lyrics, I can’t help but imagine the lines would be split more along the rhythmic lines of the song.

These lyrics are really interesting as used in the song, though. In particular, the sentence structure here noticeably does not line up with the rhythmic lines of the song. That is, if you go by the rhythmic lines (where there are pauses), it sounds like this:

    Hann er þögull

    sem múrveggur hávær

    sem handleggur brotinn

    í agnir niður aumkun

which would translate to…

    He is silent

    as a loud wall

    like a broken arm

    into smithereens pity

and so on - the lyrics initially just seem to make no sense because the line splits garble them up into statements that appear to be nonsensical or contradictory. But then you listen better and realize no, it’s actually:

    Hann er þögull sem múrveggur,

    hávær sem handleggur brotinn í agnir niður,

    aumkun sem engu nemur…

or:

    He is silent as a wall,

    loud as an arm smashed into smithereens,

    pity nearly nil…

I think it’s a pretty neat effect that enhances the unsettling nature of the song’s imagery; it’s all just sort of coming at you in a way you don’t expect and you have to decipher what it means a little.

This is another song consisting of strong, stark images, and the lyrics are kind of cryptic. But I think what’s being gotten at with the imagery is clearly fascism/authoritarianism: the idea of this ‘strong leader’ preparing for war, the juxtaposition of this unsettling, intimidating, pitiless authority figure, the hatred and fear that they stoke in the populace, and the violence that they command, as a fragile continent hangs in the balance. And of course, this leader, or eradicator, is familiar: we’ve seen this before, and where it leads.

Klemens’s lyrics are even more cryptic, but I think it’s addressed to the nation that’s falling into this trap. I feel like “The letter that never came” is referencing some historical story of a crucial letter not arriving and thus failing to prevent bloodshed; a couple of friends pointed to the Battle of New Orleans, which was fought after the war was already over but before word had reached the front lines, but I’m not sure that fits into the rest of what the song is depicting. Friend also points out it may just be referring to communications being controlled/manipulated in an authoritarian state, which makes sense.

Incidentally: “Klettsbrún af hverri þú dast” is using the same unusual-in-Icelandic “off which you fell” construction as Matthías’s lines in “Ógleði”; the normal way to write that would be “Klettsbrún sem þú dast af” (a cliff that you fell off). Obviously this phrasing facilitates the rhyme, but I also just find it delightfully signature Matthías to be repeatedly using this grammatical structure we don’t usually in his lyrics.
