I saw this post come up again and I thought I’d try and translate it. My guess is that the passage is from “Herod and Mariamne” by Literature Nobel-prize winner Pär Lagerkvist, presumably translated from its original Swedish into Greenlandic, but I don’t have a hard copy to confirm this. Want to hear it spoken out loud? Well the Greenlandic Language Secretariat (Oqaaseriliffik) has a groovy text-to-speech tool for that - click here and listen!
Ullut ilaanni aperaa uitaarerusunneraani. Asanninnermik sumik taasaqanngilaq. Aammami tamanna qangasuarli paasereersimajunnarsivaa, oqaatsillu taamaattut, taamak pingaartigisut, aninnissaat nangaanartorujussuuvoq. Siornatigut taamaattunik oqaaseqarsimanngisaannarami aninngitsoorluaannarpai. Aammami imminut oqaasissaqqiginngilluinnaramigit.
Aperisaa sumik akinngilaq, aammami akeqqullugu piumaffiginngilaa. Taamaallaat ajukkuppalungajattutut pissuseqarluni oqarfigaa oqaatsini eqqarsaatigitsiaqqullugit.
One day he asked her if she would marry him. There had been no declaration of love. And indeed she had understood this for a long time; and such words, being of such importance, their utterance was extremely troublesome. Because he had never spoken of such things before, he cannot have said these words lightly. And also because he definitely did not consider them worth saying again.
She did not answer his question, and she also did not want him to ask her to answer. So coming across as somewhat shy, she asked if she could think a little about what he had said.
uitaarerusunneraani whether she would marry him (lit. whether she would want to have him as a new husband)
asanninnermik sumik taasaqanngilaq there had been no declaration of love (lit. no love had been talked about/mentioned)
tamanna she (lit. this one)
qangasuarli for a long time
paasereersimajunnarsivaa she had already understood this for sure
oqaatsillu taamaattut and such words
taamak pingaartigisut of such importance (considered to be important in this way)
aninnissaat their utterance
nangaanartorujussuuvoq was extremely troublesome
siornatigut before, earlier
taamaattunik oqaaseqarsimanngisaannarami because he had never spoken about such things
aninngitsoorluaannarpai he had not (as would otherwise be expected) just easily uttered them (or: he cannot have said these words lightly)
oqaasissaqqiginngilluinnaramigit because he absolutely did not consider them worth saying again.
sumik akinngilaq she did not answer
akeqqullugu piumaffiginngilaa she did not want to be asked to answer him
ajukkuppalungajattutut pissuseqarluni (in the position of) almost making out to be shy
oqarfigaa oqaatsini eqqarsaatigitsiaqqullugit she asked if she could think a little about what he had said
I haven’t broken down the words into their consistent parts as in previous posts, but I’d be happy to do so if anyone has any specific questions. As ever, corrections welcome. In particular if anyone has a copy of the original Lagerkvist text to confirm (in Swedish or any other language) to confirm if it is in fact an extract from that book, I’d be grateful, also to compare the translation.
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