George Johnston: Poetry in Translation

George Johnston's English language translation of Christian Matras's poems is likely to be the only dual-language book of Faroese poetry or any Faroese literature available. 'Úr Sjón og Úr Minni, or Seeing and Remembering', is a small book of short verses, and one of the last collections of poetry written by Christian Matras.

Seeing and Remembering contains 20 short verses, between two and eight lines each, with the original Faroese poems facing Johnston's translation. The book may appear sparse and is quite a peculiar oddity, but for language learners and appreciators of Faroese-language literature, this is a great and an important discovery.

In the '70's, Johnston visited the Faroe Islands, befriending and working closely with Christian Matras to translate and publish a small collection of his poems in Poetry Foundation's magazine 'Poetry', and later in the Faroese poetry anthology 'Rocky Shores'. Seeing and Remembering was published in '86, but there is no mention of whether they worked together to translate Seeing and Remembering. Johnston did get a chance to visit the Faroe Islands and his friend Christian Matras in the summer of '88, four months before Christian Matras died.

In 'Inward of Poetry', a book of letters between Johnston and his close friend William Blissett, it's suggested that Matras became Johnston's favourite modern poet, and is likely the poet who had the greatest influence on Johnston's late poetry. With this in mind, it becomes a little clearer why this peculiar little book exists.

George Johnston also translated Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen's 'Barbara' into English, a tradition handed down to him from Jacobsen's close friend Christian Matras. Matras translated Barbara from its original Danish into Faroese.

Randi Ward: Faroese Poetry in Translation

Writer and photographer Randi Ward has introduced us to the works of three Faroese poets: Sissi Kampmann, Vónbjørt Vang, and Tóroddur Poulsen. These poets, a mix of emerging and established talent, provide a glimpse into Faroese literature. Find the English translations and the poems in their original Faroese at words without borders, a magazine celebrating international literature. A biography of each poet accompanies each poem.

• Sissi Kampmann's the round table is the eye
• Vónbjørt Vang's on the bed
• Tóroddur Poulsen's The Expiration Date

Randi Ward also provides a great introduction to the contemporary Faroese literature, the writers working today, and the issues facing Faroese artists in her article "Rocking the Boat in the Faroe Islands".

Selections of Randi Ward's work can be found on her website with photography at broadzine.

Faroese-English Dictionary (Orðabók)

The online, searchable Faroese-English and English-Faroese dictionaries are now accessible for free at Sprotin. Sprotin discontinued publishing the Føroysk-Ensk/English-Faroese dictionaries and previously offered a subscription service to access an online version of them, making ongoing study of the Faroese language costly. Now, with over 140,000 entries combined, studying Faroese has never been easier. The searchable dictionary does not recognize the inflections of nouns and verbs, so some understanding of Faroese grammar is still required. Twelve other dictionaries are also available for students who speak German, Danish, Spanish, and a dictionary for translating Russian into Faroese.

Reading in Faroese

It was only a few weeks after purchasing our tickets to Iceland sometime in June that we decided to add flights to Faroe. We couldn't resist, and thought, how could we be so close and not go? And, if life treats us well, we are hoping to visit the islands again next summer.

With school and life, it's been difficult to find the time to pick up the language, but the return to my favourite island nation this past summer rekindled that interest. I purchased a few books and an audio book during our visit to help me get in the spirit. I'm moving away from learning conversational Faroese and am focusing on reading literature. There is something about attempting to translate a short story. You learn so much about syntax, word usage and you get to see first hand how the language abounds with idiomatic expressions. It does take time, but I do it in the evenings now and I actually find it relaxing after a long day. I like learning conversational Faroese, but when I'm already studying for school, I need something a little more, well, like a puzzle and less like a lesson.

For those who enjoy this method of learning the language, Sprotin publishes the Faroese version of the "Old Man and His Sons", by Heðin Brú. Both paper, cd and electronic versions are available and the English version is readily available from Amazon or Book Depository. It is the only Faroese book that has all English, Faroese and audio versions available that I am aware of, but it is a little daunting due to its length, despite being a short novel. Other English translations of literature written in the Faroese language are not easily available, but you may be able to locate the rare "Faroese Short Stories" from the Library of Scandinavian Literature, published by Twayne Pub. and The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Even if you are not learning the language this way, it's a great book to bring you back to a favourite place that also gives you a peek into the development of earlier Faroese literature.

The Faroese short stories are filled with the landscape that I enjoy so much. Heðin Brú delivers some of the best and are among my personal favourites. From reading the handful of his stories available to me, I couldn't resist purchasing the newly published collection of his stories, despite being illiterate in Faroese. The collection of short stories stands as a monument to my time in Faroe this past summer, spending time on Sandoy, the island of his birth, and the long discussions of language, politics and literature with our bus driver who also happened to be a descendent from the poet Janus Djuurhus!

For now, I use a story written by Heðin Brú that I found in Lockwood's "Introduction to Modern Faroese". "Krossvatn" has no English translation, but that almost works to an advantage. It takes time, but the slow process allows you to soak in the grammar naturally. I'm still trying to make sense of the first paragraph, but I know the story is about a lake which is more of a pond, but despite its small stature, has something about it that's bigger than life -- or maybe it's deathly still but something is alive. Lockwood's text does a good job of providing some of the idiomatic expressions in the glossary.

The Faroese-English Phrasebook

It does exist, and it's still somewhat useful, especially for those who want something small, light and easy-going to walk around with, even if some of the 700 entries are just a touch out-of-date. Sometime in 1940, two writers had "a long-felt want" to publish this little book and since that time, there doesn't seem to be any other book of its kind like it. So without this and Forvo, we would be left on our own for quick fixes. Zijo's "700 Phrases in English-Faroese & 700 Reglur Á Føroysk-Enskum" is less than 60 pages and contains a short glossary of 'useful words' in both Faroese-English and English-Faroese, the cardinal numbers, telling the time, and about 30 pages of 'useful' phrases such as "The weather is bad," and "Have you any fountain pens?" What makes this book great for people with a working knowledge of English pronunciation is how it provides not just the translation in the often-difficult-to-figure-out-how-to-pronounce Faroese, but a simplified English phonetic translation, or how the Faroese would be written if a right and proper Englishman preceded Hammershaimb in transcribing the language. The Faroese translations into English are accompanied by a Faroese phonetical version as well. Here is an example:

What is the time    Kvairt airh klokkan    Hvat er klokkan    Vátt iðs ðe teim

Now, we read in the introduction that the r used above in Kvairt is soundless, and intended to give the vowels the correct sound. So i guess we pronounce this like air but without the r. There are other tips, and only a few, so at least we don't have to memorize a cumbersome set of rules like that in Lockwood's Modern Faroese.

Now, we all know the difficulty in this type of work and we can see the troubles that come along with learning a language in such a way. Wiki has a Faroese guide that is similar in style, a sort of how-to-pronounce the useful travel phrases, but there is little standardization, and as a result I've been forced to unlearn the pronunciations of many combinations of letters learned from sources such as this for the last year. Things get more complicated and disconcerting when listening to the different pronunciations on Forvo from Faroese speakers. Our heads are spun around when we hear Faroese speakers from different islands pronouncing something as seemingly simple as Torshavn. I'm losing the hair in the back of my head from continuous scratching. As for the loss of hair on the top of my head, that is something different altogether. So can we take anything from this book, or is it merely a curiosity in the life of an obsessed and all-too-willing and persistent Faroese language learner? The Faroese phonetic translation of English is actually instructive. Being careful with the use of Ð's and ð's (often used to pronounce our 'th' sound), I can see the pronunciation of the Faroese letters if a Faroese speaker were transcribing our language, and it's beautiful looking. Above we have Vátt, and we know how á is pronounced if two consonants follow compared to one (the so-called long and short vowels), and so on - until that little voice in my head reminds me again that it's not that simple and starts shooting off Vagar, Vík, vindur... ...and I start fading and begin wondering what I have gotten myself into. Not all V's are V's or v's v's, if that makes any sense, and so it goes with all the other letters backwards through the alphabet, and I'm sure you can see now the fact that it makes perfect sense to me just proves how lost I am in this wonderful and difficult language. But slow and steady wins the race, though I'm reminded of all the things the speedy hare was able to do while in the race and still managed a respectable second place finish.

And for those who skipped down to the end: it's a compact book, and until someone puts together an updated version of something similar, it's all we have. For now, you can rest assured knowing you won't visit Faroe without being fully capable of ordering two packs of playing cards from a store clerk.

Children's Books and Apple Pie

This photo was taken in Hjá Jórun, Klaksvík, just outside the entrance to the subsea tunnel that leads back to Eysturoy and onwards to the capital on Streymoy, and yes... we ate the whole pie that same day. The apple crumble and I are reading Faroese: A language course for beginners, while Jane documents and enjoys the rolling fog and sea outside the window. On the table sits 'Myndaorðabók' for reference, otherwise known as the picture dictionary for the language learning challenged or umm, children. Now, as it turns out, this book is not just great bedtime reading for your child, and as most learners of multiple languages can tell you, children's books are one of the best sources of material to learn from. They're often targeted to an age group, so us beginners can start with the littlest ones and gradually move up through the years as we, and they, progress, gradually reading and comprehending more complex sentence structures and words, and sadly, gradually relying less on pictures. But these books have the advantage of providing us with a true test of our comprehension without supplying the answers, something that I find can put a stick in the spokes of any new learner who often relies on the answers in the back of their textbook.

When visiting the bookstores in Faroe, I'm surprised by the amount of authors and books that have been published, especially considering the population of the island's and how long the Faroese language has been in its written form. Within just over a century, the Faroese have made a remarkable literary history and the current scene is, for what would otherwise be a small town anywhere in Canada or any other country, quite staggering. As far as the children's books go... well, keep an eye on your bank account -- there are a lot. So to start, consider the Myndaorðabók. It'll give you all the basic terms for a whole range of daily activities, providing both the English and the Faroese. This book is particularly suited for English readers as well since all words have both English and Faroese, and not just pictures and the equivalent English word, as some other myndaorðabøkur published in the Faroes provide. And since it is kinda-technically a dictionary, it doesn't give you details on sentence structure, but we all know that learning to name objects and activities around us is where we all need to start. After that, it's just a matter of putting the words together. Well, maybe there's more to it than that. For now, we can sit and enjoy the illustrations and learn a few Faroese terms.

Myndaorðabók and other short stories are available online at both Rit og Rák and H.N. Jacobsens. You can find it by searching for the book directly, or use the side panel, under barnabøkur, to search the available children's books.

Faroese-English Dictionaries

For language learners looking for that all important resource, Sprotin is the publisher of the Faroese-English dictionary and it comes in two different sizes. One is similar in size to Oxfords Concise English Dictionary, bound in two books and boxed, and the other is a more modest version bound in one volume. There's a catch though, and unless you're able to search for or willing to pay for some rare specimens, you may have some trouble finding either of these.

We talked to Sprotin and they explained that their paper version will not be published anymore. Hmm, I'm really kicking myself for not buying one when I saw it in Tórshavn. I recall picking the book up and thinking, 'we've got one week of hiking in Iceland still and I'm living out of a backpack so I can't realistically carry this around with me!' I'm failing to mention that my bag was already filled with too many books that would, later on, be taken care of by the lovely people at the Reykjavík bus station as we set off to the interior of Iceland. Thankfully, those books are sitting comfortably beside me on my shelf now. As for that dictionary, where did I put it...Oh right, back on the shelf in the bookstore in Torshavn.

Forms of the Landscape

It's January and in Toronto it should be snowing, but the rain taps on the window. I can't help but be reminded of the sound when Jane and I were waiting out the rain in the portable kitchen of the Klaksvík campsite. In Faroe, you must be patient and let the rain pass, but sometimes you have to step outside to get a view of the fog covered hillsides and the otherwise peaceful stream erupting in a torrent over the edges and down into the broad valley.

A lot of learning Faroese is about understanding the forms of landscape. You can't help but notice this in the names of the places you visit too. I'll sit staring at a map for hours asking, "what are all these lines and names?" There appears to be some labyrinth on the approach to Enniberg on Viðoy... and everywhere else, for that matter. Looming over Klaksvík's eastern side lies Myrkjanoyrarfjáll, sitting on a podium of uncultivated pastureland (hagi) and exposed basalt rock (hellusvað) high above the outfield (garður), and when you look around, each mountain (fjáll) seems sculpted in a similar way. If you were climbing these mountains, you would encounter these labyrinths, braided around the green hillsides (grøna líð) as stretches of cliff called hamar. The cliffs are unclimbable and must be circumnavigated, but the sheer number of them rising up a mountain is staggering in itself, not to mention the clefts and gorges (gjógv, singular) that run lengthwise down the side, often carrying the streams (àir, à is the singular) over the edges of the cliffs as torrents and waterfalls (fossa og fossur) into the broad valley (dalur). Myrkjanoyrarfjáll does seem to be growing dark, as it's name implies, especially when the light moves behind it or the fog or rain rolls in. You can climb to Klakkur on the opposite side to get a view of it if you wish...and with it, you'll get a view of Kunoy, and Kalsoy and the eastern bays of Eysturoy. Looking ahead there seems to be nothing below you. Far out to sea, (sjógv) beyond the peaks, there is nothing but Svalbard and the Arctic, hundreds of miles to the north. Maps and the names given to the features, much like in Gaelic names on Scottish maps and Icelandic in Iceland's maps, can tell us a lot about the area we are traversing.

If you're going to visit, it's a good idea bring along Føroyar Topografiskt Atlas 1:100 000 printed by Kort & Matrikelstyrelsen in 1999. The map varies in it's availability online (check Stanfords) but it's usually available in all the bookshops, so don't fret if you can't find it before your trip. Also available are the much more detailed (1:20,000!) collection of maps. If you're planning on hiking or want to know the names of specific mountains, hills, valleys and so on, get the specific map for the area you are visiting. 37 maps cover the islands. The trails in Faroe are difficult to find, so having these detailed maps will be helpful. Keep in mind that these maps were printed in 1989 and so many tunnels and road projects are not shown. There are much older maps at the same scale called Dýpdakort Føroyar. These are rare but can be found in some shops.

Eg oyggjar veit - I know some islands

Eg oyggjar veit, sum hava fjøll 
og grøna lìð,
og taktar eru tær við mjøll 
um vetratìð,
og àir renna vakrar har 
og fossa nògv,
tær vilja allar skunda sær 
ì blàan sjogv
Gud signi mìtt føðiland Føroyar

This is the first verse of the song Eg Oyggjar Veit, written by Frìðrikur Petersen. The audio track of this verse can be heard, along with all other tracks from the textbook "Faroese: A Language Course for Beginners" on the Stiðin website (Stiðin is a Faroese publisher).

The verse sums up the Faroe Islands almost too well, although there is much more to the Faroe's than the steep mountains and cascading rivers described in it. Yet, it's likely to be this image that holds our imagination best. There are six verses to this song but I have yet to find a complete translation of it. Maybe the rest of the song adequately describes the other beautiful aspects of the Faroes, like life, the birds, the fog and clouds, the wind and sea... okay, it was written some time in the 19th century and we know much has changed since then, and though the nature remains, I don't imagine the song reflects on the network of tunnels that wind through the mountains and under the sea, and the modern network of paved roads that has begun to replace the village paths. Well, I can think of these as I experienced them last summer, or as I've known about them for some time before that, thinking in wonderment about these islands and their mountains and the roads that keep the Faroese people connected. Only later did I learn about the ferry and helicopter connections between the remote villages, and later about the language that has connected the Faroese people for so long. And I only need to recall 'I know some islands' to be connected to the wealth of thoughts, images and feelings that I now have of this place.