Íre rávanna

Translated by Elros / Måns Björkman

A Quenya translation of the spring-song Längtan till landet by Herman Sätherberg. The music by Otto Lindblad is available as a midi file.

Hríve taltie mi orontilmar,
losselóti firir úrenen.
Menel mire mi andúne-rilmar,
Anar taure ata cuit' ar nén. [bis]
Tule rato alcarinqua laire,
helwa-ahyala ve falmali
culde nandar vaita áre-faire
ar nu aldar liltar ehteli. [bis]

Aiya merye súri! Yé, tulinye,
et rávanna, aiwenórie,
lalmi, versilinnar, i melinye,
oron, nén, nai cenuvanye te. [bis]
Ata cenuvanyet ve nésesse,
hilya nenna nelle liltale,
hlare lindo lindale tauresse,
ailinello alqua-tyalie. [bis]

Vintern rasat ut bland våra fjällar,
drivans blommor smälta ner och dö.
Himlen ler i vårens ljusa kvällar,
solen väcker liv i skog och sjö.
Snart är sommarn här i purpurvågor,
guldbelagda, azurskiftande
ligga ängarne i dagens lågor
och i lunden dansa källorne.

Ja, jag kommer! Hälsen, glada vindar,
ut till landet, ut till fåglarne,
att jag älskar dem, till björk och lindar,
sjö och berg, jag vill dem åter se.
Se dem än som i min barndoms stunder,
följa bäckens dans till klarnad sjö,
trastens sång i furuskogens lunder,
vattenfågelns lek kring fjärd och ö.

Notes on the translation

Íre rávanna "Desire to the wilderness": the concept of a countryside, landet, as distinct from a city region, hardly existed in the minds of the Eldar.

Hríve taltie mi orontilmar, "Winter has fallen in our mountains,"

*taltie: augmentless perfect form of talta- "slope, slip, slide down"; c.f. fírie "she has breathed forth" (MR), oantie *"has gone away" (WJ)

losselóti firir úrenen. "the snow-flowers fade in the heat."

*losse-lóti: plural compound of losse "snow" (incidentally also signifying "white blossom") and lóte "flower"
*úre-nen: instrumental of úre "heat"

Menel mire mi andúne-rilmar, "Heaven smiles in the evening-lights,"

*mire: QL gives miri- "to smile"
andúne-rilmar: plural compound of andúne "evening" and rilma "glittering light"

Anar ata cuita taure ar nén. "The sun again wakes forest and water."

*cuita: "wake" (in the text lenited to cuit'), from KUY- "come to life, awake"; c.f. the verb eccoita- *"wake up" (VT 27)
nén: "water", here and elswere used to translate Swedish sjö "lake"

Tule rato alcarinqua laire, "Comes soon the glorious summer,"

rato: "soon" (FCL)

helwa-ahyala ve falmali "blue-shifting like the waves"

*ahyala: "shifting, changing", from *ahya- "change" (intransitive) (PM)

áre-faire vaita culde nandar "the day-radiance enfolds golden-red plains"

áre-faire: compound of áre "day, sunlight" and faire "radiance"
vaita: "wrap" (BLT 1)

ar nu aldar liltar ehteli. "and under the trees dance the springs."

Aiya merye súri! Yé, tulinye, "Hail festive winds! Yeah, I come,"

yé: untranslated interjection, probably meaning something like "yeah" (LR)

et rávanna, aiwenórie, "out to the wilderness, the bird-country,"

ráva-nna: allative of ráva "wilderness"
aiwe-nórie: compound of aiwe "bird" and nórie "country"

lalmi, versilinnar, i melinye, "to the elms and birches, which I love,"

*lalmi: plural form of lalme "elm-tree". Sadly no word for lind, "lime", has been attested in the Elvish languages.
*versil-innar: allative plural of *versil "birch"; c.f. Sindarin brethil *"silver birch" (S). The allative case ending here applies to both lalmi and versili, on analogy with the genitive in Namna Finwe Míriello "The statute of Finwe [and] Míriel" (MR).

oron, nén, nai cenuvanye te. "mountain, water, may it be that I shall see them."

Ata cenuvanyet ve nésesse, "Again I will se them like in the youth,"

*nése-sse: lockative of nése "youth"

hilya nelle liltale nenna, "follow the brook's dance to the water"

*liltale: "dancing", from the verb lilta- "dance"; c.f. lindale "music" from linda- "sing"
nelle liltale: "brook dance", a 'loose compound' of the same kind as Orome róma, "'an Orome horn', sc. one of Orome's horns" (WJ)
*nen-na: allative of nén "water", the stem vowel being shortened before a long consonant

hlare lindo lindale tauresse, "hear the music of the songster in the wood,"

lindo: genitive of lindo "singer, singing bird" (the genitive suffix being invisible in a word already ending in o)

ailinello alqua-tyalie. "from the lake the swan-play."

alqua-tyalie: compound of alqua "swan" and tyalie "sport, play, game"; although the Swedish lek here refers to the courtship of the waterfowl, "play" seems appropriate as a poetic euphemism.