Jónas Hallgrímsson: Table Hymn

10. Table Hymn (Borðsálmur)

Table Hymn

Borðsálmur

PRECENTOR:

We've got so much to bitch about,
such boundless grounds for whining,
the hour has come — there is no doubt —
to interrupt our dining.

CONGREGATION:

Christ, hear the creature,
canting like a preacher!
Should we gibe and jeer him?
Or hear him?

PRECENTOR:

I know a nation, combed and clean,
with comely lads and lasses,
loyal liegemen ever keen
to lick their masters' asses.

CONGREGATION:

Man, what's the matter?
My you like to chatter!
Your praise is both capricious
and vicious.

PRECENTOR:

Just now the natives feel their oats
(for nerve will rarely fail them),
demanding new and nifty boats
though not a soul can sail them.

CONGREGATION:

No need to worry
or gnash your teeth in fury —
they're pretty good at going
out rowing!

PRECENTOR:

They've formed a new committee now,
announced by royal letter,
without an earthly inkling how
it ought to make things better.

CONGREGATION:

Well — time will settle
whether that has mettle!
We find these facts we're getting
upsetting.

PRECENTOR:

This people's enterprise is not
a potent force behind it.
They live on curds and whey a lot
and liquor when they find it.

CONGREGATION:

True, they like drinking
till they're really stinking —
we find these facts insightful
but spiteful.

PRECENTOR:

Incessant slumber makes them pleased;
their singing's really frightful;
their wool is often oddly teased,
their eiderdown delightful.

CONGREGATION:

Far from surprising
to find them late arising!
We think the things you're saying
dismaying.

PRECENTOR:

The children wear their charming hats
like chipper little Frenchmen.
The dales are dark with bureaucrats
from Denmark and their henchmen.

CONGREGATION:

Mister! I wouldn't
mutter things you shouldn't!
Things you'd best forget about —
not fret about!

FORSÖNGVARINN:

Það er svo margt, ef að er gáð,
sem um er þörf að ræða;
ég held það væri heillaráð,
að hætta nú að snæða.

FÓLKIÐ:

Heyrið þið snáða,
hvað er nú til ráða?
það mun best að bíða
og hlýða.

FORSÖNGVARINN:

Á einum stað býr þrifin þjóð,
með þvegið hár og skjanna,
við húsbændurna holl og góð,
sem hundrað dæmi sanna.

FÓLKIÐ:

Hvað er að tarna?
hvað sagðirðu þarna?
Mættum við fá meira
að heyra.

FORSÖNGVARINN:

Mér hefir verið sagt í svip,
að sig hún taki' að yggla
og ætli nú að eignast skip,
þótt enginn kunni' að sigla.

FÓLKIÐ:

Við litlu má gera,
látum svona vera;
þeir ýtast þá með árum
á bárum.

FORSÖNGVARINN:

Nú eru líka níu menn,
sem nóttina eiga' að stytta,
þó varla nokkur viti enn,
hve vænlegt ráð þeir hitta.

FÓLKIÐ:

Segðu' ekki lengur!
seinna veit hvað gengur.
Mættum við fá meira
að heyra.

FORSÖNGVARINN:

Á einum stað býr einnig fólk,
sem alltaf vantar brýni;
það lifir þar á mysu' og mjólk,
en mest á brennivíni.

FÓLKIÐ:

Æ, hvaða skrambi!
ætli' þeir standi' á þambi?
Mættum við fá meira
að heyra.

FORSÖNGVARINN:

Þar hefir verið sofið sætt,
en sungið nokkru miður,
og ullin fremur illa tætt;
en allra besta fiður.

FÓLKIÐ:

Ætli' það sé undur
þótt á þá renni blundur!
Mættum við fá meira
að heyra.

FORSÖNGVARINN:

Þar eru blessuð börnin frönsk
með borðalagða húfu,
og yfirvöldin illa dönsk
á annarri hvörri þúfu.

FÓLKIÐ:

Hættu nú herra!
Hér mun koma verra,
sem þér er betra' að þegja' um
en segja' um.

Date:	Late April 1839.
Form:	Each of the "precentor" stanzas consists of four alternating four- and three-stress lines rhyming aBaB and with the alliteration pattern 22. Each of the "congregation" stanzas consists of three two-stress lines followed by a single-stress line rhyming AABB and with the alliteration pattern 210.¹ (The last two lines of the translation are irregular and reflect the way the last two lines of the original are usually sung in Iceland today, without elision.)
Manuscript:	None surviving.
First published:	26 April 1839, in pamphlet form, for distribution at the banquet in honor of Þorgeir Guðmundsson (see below); it bears the title "Borðsálmur" (image).

Commentary: In earlier times, in Iceland, it was customary to sing "table hymns" at wedding banquets and on other festive occasions (see Íþh292). These table hymns (borðsálmar) were usually religious in character; Jónas's poem represents a secular parody of the genre. Like the preceding "Toast to Iceland," to which it stands in highly revealing contrast, it was written for the banquet in honor of Reverend Þorgeir Guðmundsson on 26 April 1839.

Writing "Table Hymn" provided Jónas with the opportunity to take renewed aim at a number of favorite targets: the submissiveness, indolence, folly, etc., of his fellow Icelanders and (in the penultimate stanza) the illegitimate children fathered by French visitors and the ubiquity of Danish officials. The reference to "new and nifty boats" in stanza 5 is an allusion to recent initiatives to expand the use of decked sailing vessels (þilskip) for fishing, to replace the open rowing boats that were customary in Iceland. This development had been supported in the first issue of Fjölnir (1F95-6). Here, four years later, Jónas seems a bit skeptical.

The "new committee" of stanza 7 is the nine-man council of officials appointed on 22 August 1838 to give advice about managing the affairs of the country. It began to hold its meetings in Reykjavík on 17 June 1839.²

The two different stanza forms employed by Jónas in this poem, one of them assigned to a single voice (the "precentor") and the other to a chorus (the "congregation"), as well as the idea of using this contrapuntal vehicle for purposes of contemporary socio-political commentary, are derived from a drinking song in Kong Salomon og Jørgen Hattemager, a "vaudeville" by Johan Ludwig Heiberg (1791-1860). Heiberg was an important Danish writer in whom Jónas seems to have had considerable interest and whom he mentions in a number of letters (2E119, 138, 157, 181). The first of Heiberg's twelve pairs of stanzas is as follows:

Salomon.

Ja ved en Bolle Punsch man kan
Gar herlig discurrieren,
Und har man nok so lidt Ferstand,
Kan man politiciren.

Chor.

Leve Discurser,
Courser og Concurser!
Leve Politiken
Og Drikken!³

Notes

¹ The poem was composed to be sung to a tune very similar to that used by Carl Michael Bellman in "Movitz skulle bli student" (Fredmans Sång 28) and the poem's unusual form is determined by the shape of the tune. On the origin and distribution of the tune, see Carl Michael Bellman, Fredmans Sånger, 2 vols. ([Stockholm]: Norstedts, 1992), II, 255.

² On this council see EAþ64-6.

³ The dependence of Jónas's "Borðsálmur" on Heiberg's "Drikkevise" seems first to have been noted by Finnur Sigmundsson (Hafnarstúdentar skrifa heim: Sendibréf 1825-1836 og 1878-1891, Íslenzk sendibréf IV [Reykjavík: Bókafellsútgáfan, 1963], pp. 41-2). Heiberg wrote his song to be sung to a tune identified as "Ecce quam bonum." His "vaudeville" was first performed at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen on 28 November 1825; a revised version of the song is dated 14 January 1827. See J. L. Heibergs Samlede Skrifter. Poetiske Skrifter, 11 vols. (Kjøbenhavn: C. A. Reitzels Forlag, 1862), V, 251-7, 275-9.