A reading of the Frisian poem 'Sy wennet yn in baarnend hûs'

[zenfox6]

As an American English speaker, I couldn't make out any of the words, but I love the sound of Frisian, and the cadence of the poem. Reading the English translation of the poem, it makes an impression.

[petelucas51]

I too have become intrugued by Frisian. I kind of understand bits of it although I was in Holland for a while Nederlands was the tongue spoken.. This to me sounds like a wierd dialect of old/middle English. I am sure peole in Newcastle would find this quite easy Thanks for posting

[mulletinatransam]

Ever since discovering how similar it is to English, I have become fascinated with the Frisian language. Thank you for posting.

[tseadbruinja]

@mulletinatransam Thank You!

[Saxonsoldiers]

Its related to OldEnglish, contains the same sounds,the,in, there,with,And, are just a few that English shares with Frisian.

[tseadbruinja]

/ its better back inside the walls / flames dancing on his portrait

letters fall unasked through the door / rustling down not reaching the mat her cat

jumps onto her lap with a vegetable desire

to be stroked she pours more meths / over the photo albums wipes / the ash from her glasses and reads and reads and reads

[tseadbruinja]

she lives in a burning house / every storm takes a tile from the roof / its cold her teeth chatter / someone outside thinks up new rules for traffic / an old man cycles on

newspapers stuffed under his clothes / she walks out with a basket full of washing

black sheets black blankets black / illowcase she sees the fields are burning too / no point in going out

[urbandiscount]

flames dance in his portrait

letters fall unasked for through the door

swishing down not reaching the mat her cat

jumps on her lap plant-like desiring

to be stroked she pours more meths

onto the photo albums wipes

the ashes from her specs and reads

and reads and reads

[urbandiscount]

she lives in a burning house each storm steals a shingle from the roof it's cold her teeth chatter outside new rules for traffic are made up cycles forth an old man wearing old newspapers stuffed inside his coat she steps out the laundry basket filled black bedding black blankets black sheet she sees the fields are burning too being out it has no goal or reason better retreat between the walls

[tseadbruinja]

Sorry not to have reacted any earlier! The woman is living in a house that is on fire forever.

Best,

Tsead

[jackh4eva]

I can understand bits of this.

[Lucienofficial]

which bits? Only a few words are the same as english. it's a shame that it is not more similar cos if it was, we could learn it and be proud of ourselves! Damn Germans/Dutch, Spanish/Catalan/Portuguese, Slavonics... (the list goes on...!).

[jackh4eva]

Through the door, portrait, photo album, and, they all sound the same or similar to English.

[tricky778]

"zwart" meaning black has only a couple of cognates remaining in Modern English. The closest, listed as archaic in my dictionary, is "swart" meaning "dark-hue" another more common word is "swarthy" being a modern version of "swarty" which is swart + -ly (dark-like or dusky).

"laken" meaning sheet is from a common root which in Modern English is used for words like "lay" and, importantly here, "lagging".

So you get "zwart laken" -> "swart lagging" -> "black sheet" (we use "black" from "bleak")

[tricky778]

I can hear Frisian still using "nim" for "take" (the second line), which we replaced with "take" around 1100AD from scandinavian languages.

[tricky778]

I've had a go at getting some english (if obsolete) words for this without full modern translation. but most of this is just an educated guess and I'm not sure about "wending" at all.

"she wendeth on in a burning house"

"all storms nim [dum bona?] from the decking, it's cold"

"her tooths clappery"

"nim" -> (obsoleted by scandinavian) take

"dakka" -> decking -> cover -> roof

[MVillani1985]

For me, understanding Frisian is almost as easy as understanding Chaucer's English (pretty easy)

[Qaraqurt]

does it mean she went into burning house?

[tricky778]

I think "wennet" might be related to "wend" (which is very closely related to "went" but we use "went" instead of "goed" nowadays yet "went" was once a past form of "wend".

Perhaps it can be translated as "she wendeth on in a burning house" implying an extended, new phase of existence rather than mere living.

[tricky778]

It would be odd for it to be "wendeth", actually, because even in Old English "wend" quite strictly meant "turn" and only in early Middle English became used for a winding way of travel and "went" for the preterite of "go". It would be suprising, but not impossible, if Frisian changed the use of "wend" in the same way.

[DerPoltergeist13]

Here Wennet does not mean went, it is the same meanng as the german Wöhnent.. Sy wennet = Sie wohnt.. it means to dwell, to live.

[tricky778]

@DerPoltergeist13 It seems this is closely related to the English word "wont" as in "she spent all her nights in a burning house, as was her wont" :)

[Triplesod]

This is very close to Olde English you know?

Extremly close.