Learning Swedish with Elin Olofsson

 

Gånglåt, med hjortronsylt (cloudberry jam).

I've just finished reading Gånglåt (2016), a novel by the Jämtland author Elin Olofsson.

A "gånglåt" is a walking tune suitable for brisk country walks, such as the melody of "Vi går över daggstänkta berg, fallera!" The normal context is folk tunes, relevant to the novel's rural setting in Jämtland and to the musical career of Sonia, one of the lead characters. It also suggests the happy uncomplicated communing of people who are in harmony with each other... something that Gånglåt very devastatingly fails to portray. 

Here's some language notes, basically addressed to myself and of interest only to other people who are learning Swedish (and are probably getting a bit beyond Duolingo).

I found it a perfect novel for that purpose: contemporary, realistic, unsentimental, concise with its details and poetry, exact in its rendering of ordinary speech. The rural setting also worked for me, though other learners might want something more urban.

Kattan

Men i mig bor en farlig katta
med mjuka tassen slår hon mus 
hon åmar sig långt bort i natta 
stryker trolöst varje hus  (p. 5)

But in me lives a dangerous she-cat

With soft paws she kills the mouse

She stalks far away at night

Faithlessly swishes through every house

The chapter epigraph hints at Sonia's unsettled and jarring behaviour when she revisits the family homestead. 

"Kattan" was Sonia's first hit record, back in 1979. "Katta" is a variant of "katt"; it just means a cat, or sometimes a female cat specifically; hence it's been used as a gendered insult directed at a woman. 

"Stryker" carries the general sense of lightly smoothing or sliding over a surface, for example ironing.  It can also have a connotation of swindling, like a cat who visits many houses for food. 

Omission of "it" (det)

Vi sparar väl åt henne så att det finns när hon kommer... (p. 9)

We'll save it for her so it's there when she comes...

Note also the present tense "sparar" (where English uses the future tense)  and the frequent use in speech of words like "väl" and "ju" which are pretty impossible to translate directly into English. They act like intensifiers that also propose a tone, inviting the listener's collusion in e.g. confidence or resignation or doubt. 

E.g. the doctor allowing Sonia one glass of wine: "Det ska ju bara vara bra för hjärtat" (p. 117) --  "It's good for the heart, supposedly".

Omission of has/had (har/hade)

Går ju att värma på om hon inte stannat längs vägen och ätit. (p. 9)

It can be heated up if she hasn't stopped along the way and eaten.

It's usual to miss out the first part of compound verbs in subordinate clauses. Despite the omission the meaning is evident because in Swedish the supine form (stannat, ätit) is only ever used in compound verbs. 

Big and little sister / hålla

"Storsyrran," viskade Sonia medan hon höll om henne. (p. 10)

"Big sister," Sonia whispered as she held her.

"Storsyrran" and "lillsyrran" are intimate forms of "storasyster" and "lillasyster". Compare Sture's "dotra" (my daughter, p. 118).

"Hålla om" is to hold someone in the sense of hugging them. "Hålla i" is to hold someone in the sense of e.g. holding on to someone's hand to stop them slipping down a slope. "Hålla på" is to support e.g. a football team; "hålla ordning på" is to keep [sth./sne.] in check; "hålla på här hemma", stay (continue) here at home; "hålla på med hennes bok", work on (continue) her book. 

The harp

"Så du spelar? Harpa, alltså? Eller är det efter patiensen?"

"So you play? The harp, I suppose? Or is it from the patience game?"

When Jenny hears that Sonia's companion is nicknamed Harpan, which means "the harp", her natural first assumption is that he's a musician like Sonia. But "harpan" is also the Swedish name of a popular patience game, the one that Microsoft simply calls Solitaire. 

Out in the kitchen

"I'm going to get the roast," Gun-Britt said and disappeared.

Sture collected up the starter plates, put them on the tray and followed her out to the kitchen.

"Yes, I thought he was going to be younger," Gun-Britt said again. "And he was married too, he had a gold ring on his finger."

"Don't start thinking like that. It's probably just someone she knows," said Sture.

"But I'd hoped that she... And she was so anxious about could he rent and was there a slot and it had to be Bergsstugan because it's the nicest."

"She just wanted to help, she knows we need paying guests," said Sture, scooping boiled potatoes into a large porcelain bowl.

"No, not that one. You can't wash it in the machine. The gilt comes off," said Gun-Britt and took the bowl from him.

She put it down on the kitchen side and took another from out the cupboards.

One by one she transferred the potatoes into it with a ladle.

"I thought she seemed so down last winter, but she's been happier on the phone this spring, so I thought she might have met someone."

Sture didn't answer, he carefully rinsed the porcelain bowl under the tap without using any washing-up liquid, then wiped it with a kitchen towel and put it back from where he'd taken it.

"Don't go on at her about it," he said. "You know how she gets mad when you do, she thinks you're sticking your oar in."

"I simply care about my daughter, how she's feeling and how she's getting on," replied Gun-Britt, and then they went out to the dining-room again, Sture with the potatoes and the plate for peelings, she with the roast and the carving-knife and the gravy in a jug.

She had to go back and get the salad before they could start on the main course.

*

"Jag går och hämtar steken", sa Gun-Britt och försvann.

Sture samlade ihop förrättstallrikarna, lade dem på brickan och gick efter henne, ut till köket.

"Ja, jag trodde han skulle vara yngre", sa Gun-Britt igen. "Och han var ju gift också, hade guldring på fingret."

"Lägg dig inte i det där. Det är väl bara någon hon känner", sa Sture. 

"Men jag hade hoppats att hon. . . Och hon var så angelägen om att han skulle få hyra, att det fanns plats. Och just Bergsstugan skulle det vara. För att den är finast."

"Hon ville väl bara hjälpa till, hon vet att Vi behöver hyresgäster", sa Sture och öste upp kokt potatis i en stor porslinsskål.

"Inte den där. Den går inte att diska I maskin. Förgyllningen släpper", sa Gun-Britt och tog ifrån honom skålen.

Hon satte ner den på köksbänken och tog fram en annan ur skåpen.

En efter en puttade hon över potatiserna i den med en slev.

"Hon lät ju så nere i vintras tyckte jag, men hon har ju låtit gladare på telefon nu i vår så jag tänkte att hon kanske träffat någon."

Sture svarade inte, han sköljde försiktigt porslinsskålen under kraken utan att ta något diskmedel och sedan torkade han ur den med en kökshandduk och ställde tillbaka den där han tagit den.

"Ligg inte på henne om det", sa han. "Du vet att hon blir sur om du gör det. Att hon tycker att du lägger dig i."

"Jag bryr om min dotter bara, hur hon mår och hur hon har det", svarade Gun-Britt, och så gick de ut i salen igen, Sture med potatisen och skalfatet, hon med steken och kniven och brunsåsen i en snipa. 

Salladen fick hon gå tillbaka och hämta innan de kunde börja med varmrätten. 

(From Ch 2, pp. 50-51.)

Stek: a roast in this case, though "steka" is also "to fry". Gun-Britt's dinner began with some rather unusual blinis, but the main course is nothing fancy: roast beef, boiled potatoes, gravy with a bit of cream in it (though not much), and salad. 

Skulle: three appearances in this extract, neatly showing its three main uses; "was going to", "would" and "should".

Guldring på fingret: literally "gold ring on the finger", where English uses a tautological possessive adjective ("his finger"). Compare "sonen" on p. 63 ("the son", where we'd say "his son").

Ligg inte på henne om det: I can't find this exact phrase, but the gist is "Don't go on at her about it". Sture is habitually a smoother-over. Underneath he's probably thinking just the same as his fiery wife, but he tries to stop her thinking or acting. Gun-Britt has a semi-functioning marriage (more than Sonia will ever have), and Sture seems a lovely guy, but Sture diplomatically sleeps through everything, she's on her own.

Snipa: any sort of pouring jug: a gravy-boat in this case, but the word's also used for a cream-jug. Related to "snip", a spout.

Snickarglädje 

utan att det skar sig mot snickarglädjen (p. 52)

Snickarglädje (lit. carpenter's joy) is the fancy carved tracery with lots of piercings on the verandas and gables of old wooden houses. It arrived in Sweden from Germany in the 19th century (a fashion that originated in Swiss chalets).

https://www.byggahus.se/bygga/snickargladje-da-nu

NB "Snickare" is a general word for woodworker, covering all kinds of furniture as well as house timbers, whereas "carpenter" in English tends to imply house-carpentry, i.e. in contrast to cabinetry or turnery which have become niche crafts now that everyday furniture is mass-produced.  

On fastenings

Blixtlåset bak i ryggen hittade han men inte hyskan som satt längst upp. När hon skulle hjälpa honom fastnade en slinga av hennes hår i den och luggade henne i nacken. (p. 62)

He located the zip behind her back but not the fastener higher up. When she tried to help him a strand of her hair got caught in it and pulled back her neck.

Of course Per wants to undress her, he's that type of guy, but the new dress that Jenny already regrets buying is causing problems.

Strictly, a hake is a hook and a hyska is an eye or eyelet. A dressmaker would buy a pack of "Hakar och hyskor", meaning hooks and eyes. One of each constitutes a fastener, a häkta, so you might also see them sold as "häktor".

" Luggade" literally means tangled. 

"Nacken" is the back of the neck, as opposed to "halsen" (the throat). The latter word is also what you'd use for "neck" in general, e.g. "Giraffen har en lång hals".

Since we're on the subject, "Hon knäppte upp knappen i byxorna" (p.127) means "She undid the button on her trousers" -- not "she did up the button", which would be "knäppte ihop knappen..." But watch out, because "Som tur var hade hon knäppt skjortan ända upp" (p. 131) means "Luckily she'd buttoned her shirt all the way up", just as in English. 

Afterwards

När allt rasat ut, det man burit och längtat och trampat sönder, då skulle döden vara så här, utan villa.

When everything had raged itself to a standstill, everything you carried and yearned for and trampled on, then death would be like this, without will. 

Another whole lot of missing auxiliary "had"s!

"Rasa" is a tricky word meaning violent and noisy bursting out, used for instance about a building collapsing, violent applause, the raging of a storm; also when plants fling ripe seeds. It has sometimes been just a slangy intensifier: "Det är en rasande tur att du leva min vän" (Evert Taube)... Roaring good luck, so to speak. "Rasa ut" implies something raging itself to a standstill e.g. a fury, a storm blowing itself out. 

"Trampa" on its own just means "tread". "Trampa sönder" means "trample", literally "tread to bits".

Night cleaning

Hon sprejade handfatet, kranen och spegeln med en tjockt lager städsprej och hoppades att hon inte skulle bli sjuk själv, för det hade hon inte tid med. Fast hon blev aldrig sjuk, tänkte hon medan hon började gnugga kranen och handfatet med en disksvamp.

Aldrig sjuk och aldrig upplöst längre, som Nancybeth nyss. När sprejen runnit av spegeln såg hon sig själv. Som berget. Grå, grå, grå. Aldrig nygråten numera.

She sprayed the washbasin, tap and mirror with a thick layer of bathroom cleaner and hoped she wasn't going to get sick herself, she had no time for that. Though she never did get sick, she thought as she began wiping round the tap and basin with a sponge.

No, she was never sick any more, never in bits the way Nancybeth was just now. When the spray ran down off the mirror she saw herself. Like the mountain. Grey, grey, grey. Never wet with fresh tears, not any more.

This is Gun-Britt cleaning up the vomit and diarrhoea after getting Nancybeth back to bed.

Disksvamp: a sponge for household cleaning, normally a sponge-scourer these days. The marine animals that we call sponges are called "svampdjur" in Swedish, which itself derives from "svamp" (mushroom, fungus) + "djur" (animal). So "disksvamp" in this sense combines "diska" (cleaning) with "svamp" (a sponge). [But confusingly "disksvamp" also means discomycetes fungi such as Scarlet Elf Cup; in this case a combination of "disk" (a disc shape) with "svamp" (a fungus)!]

Upplöst: literally dissolved, disintegrated; emotionally in bits. 

Nygråten: literally newly wept, i.e. when you've just been crying. You won't find this in SAOB, but it's common, e.g. describing people (usually proud mums and dads) with tears in their eyes on Instagram.

"Bortaflin" and "hemmagrin"

Bortaflin och hemmagrin hette det ju, men när de hyrde av henne eller kom till hennes gård var det som om hon tvingades ha bortaflinet på sig hemma också. Det tärde. (p. 99)

The "away grin" and the "home groan" as they say, but when people took her cabins or came up to the farm it was like she had to wear the "away grin" even in her own home. It was wearing thin.

So Gun-Britt's rhyming tag is about the bright  smile you put on when in public, masking the real feelings that you only give way to in the privacy of your own home. 

The only other place I could find this rhyming pair of expressions was in a post by Elin Olofsson herself, but I did come across another saying: "Efter flin kommer grin" (After grinning comes tears).

Both the words are nouns that are less common than their equivalent verbs (flina, grina).

Flin means "grin", with the same potentially disapproving implications as in English, e.g. a stupid or silly grin (as in Gun-Britt's saying), or the kind of jeering grin that so infuriates serious-minded adults (as in the other saying). 

Grin means the distortion of the face when crying (SAOB grin 3). This is the predominant meaning in the north of Sweden, but in the south of Sweden it usually means just a grin (SAOB grin 4, an import from Danish as some think). Both senses are ultimately connected with the idea of showing your teeth.  The southern sense would of course ruin the point of these sayings, which perhaps explains why they're not used very much. 

Here's a link to that blog post by Elin Olofsson (in Swedish). It reflects on this passage in Gånglåt and on the business of attracting tourism into the depopulated areas of Jämtland. 

https://elinolofssondotcom.wordpress.com/2016/03/05/men-aldrig-vackra-vykort/

Jämtska or slang or what?

Hon hörde musiken i huvudet. Hörde piano, hörde gitarr, hörde de klanger hon hört från början när hon skrev låten. (p. 99)

She heard the music in her head. Heard the piano, heard the guitar, heard the sounds she'd heard when she first wrote the song.

Midsummer evening. Sonia is singing unaccompanied; she hasn't played guitar for years. 

It's obvious what the sentence means, but I don't understand the construction. Does "hörde de klanger" mean "heard them sound (as she had heard them...)" or "heard the sounds (that she had heard...)"? Either way it doesn't seem to be standard Swedish. 

On dishes

... när hon gick runt bordet och samlade ihop disken. (p. 99)

... as she went round the table gathering up the dishes.

Three words to choose between. A dish as in an item of fancy food that you serve up is "en maträtt". A dish as in a utensil is probably "en skål" (a bowl) or "ett fat" (a saucer, also barrel or basin) : e.g. Put it in a dish and cover it, "Lägg det i en skål och täck över". Dishes as in dirty dishes, washing-up, is "disken" or "diskarna" (SAOB disk II.1.b); the former is in definite singular form but with plural meaning, I think. More common than the noun is the verb derived from it: diska, to wash up.

To excess

"Midsommar. Det är nu det vänder", sa hon.

Hon ville att han skulle säga det han alltid sa, det hon hört till leda, att sommaren var lång, att det var mycket kvar än, det som han brukade säga när vedboden var tom eller fönstren behövde kittas om, "sommaren är lång, Gun-Britt, det hinns med sedan", men han sa ingenting. (pp. 103-104)

"Midsummer. Now is when it turns," she said.

She wanted him to say what he always said, what she had heard till she was sick of it, that summer was long, that there was still plenty more time, the things he usually said when the woodshed was empty or the windows needed caulking, "Summer is long, Gun-Britt, there's time for that later," but he said nothing. 

"Till leda" is an informal expression meaning something repeated to the point of excess. In English we'd use expressions like "you've been told it a thousand times", "fed to the back teeth", "until I'm blue in the face" or "I've had it up to here with..." to express the same idea. 

But now after the disastrous midsummer gathering a weakened Gun-Britt longs to hear Sture's timeworn reassurance, even if she'd only find fault with it. 

One

Stigen han funnit gick snett över ena hörnet av en åker ... (p. 105).

The route he'd found cut across one corner of a field... 

"Ena hörnet" looks weird; I never saw this on Duolingo! It literally means "the one corner"; ena is the definitive form of en or ett. 

Snett means "diagonally" (or the obsolescent English word "athwart").

"Han funnit" is a concealed subordinate clause (that he had found), so "hade" is omitted.

Enastående (or enstående) means "extraordinary". 

En can also be used as an impersonal pronoun, instead of man. Here Sonia uses both.

Alla namn tvingar en tillbaka, tänkte Sonia. De sliter och drar i en tills man finner det någon drömde om, tänkte ut och planerade för. (p. 111)

Every name forces you back, Sonia thought. They tear and pull at you until you find what someone dreamed of, thought out and planned for.

She knows her name (originally "Sonja") means "wisdom" (Slavic variant of Sophia) but doubts if her parents chose it for that reason. Gun-Britt means "battle-bright", if it comes to that.

Standing upright

När han fått åt sig lite mer luft reste Harpan på ryggen igen. (p. 106)

When he had taken in a bit more air Harpan straightened up again.

This is "resa" not in the sense of journeying but of setting something upright (SAOB resa v2), e.g the common expression "resa på sig", to get up (stand up from a sitting position). "Resa på ryggen" literally means to straighten up the back. (Harpan after running has bent forward panting with his hands on his knees.) 

Vein-painting

". . . Och ibland hittade han gamla möbler på stan som han tog hem, till och med en gammal ådermålad kista norrifrån med bröllopsdatum som han sa vi kunde låtsas var vårt." (p. 113)

". . . And sometimes he found old furniture in town that he brought home, even an old vein-painted chest from up north with a wedding date that he said we could pretend was ours."

Åder is a vein (blood-vessel, same figurative uses as in English). "Ådermålad" refers to Ådring or ådringsmålning (see Wikipedia), the technique of staining and patterning the surface of cheap wood such as pine to make it look a bit like mahogany or walnut. It's comparable to marble-effect and in English is called faux wood grain. It was very popular in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century, then crashed out of fashion; I remember it on old furniture in our Jämtland summer cottage. 

Do bears whistle?

"Det säger att den visslar när den kommer, men jag vet inte om det är sant." (p. 120)

"They say it whistles as it approaches, but I don't know if that's true."

Widely credited in Sweden, and often attested (E.g. recently by rider Jhenny Larsson in Offerdal, just before being chased by a bear for 3 km (P4 Jämtland)). According to skansen.se, those who come into contact with brown bears generally say that they make a blowing sound that can resemble a soft whistle.

Jocular inversions

Swedish lends itself to stylistic inversions, much more than modern English. The auctioneer uses this colloquial one, to a child:

"Fråga pappa din om han har råd med en hundralapp..." (p. 127)

"Ask your dad if he has a spare hundred-note ...." (100 kronor note, roughly equivalent to a £10 note)

Fika at the farm

Sonia is talking about what's going into her book.

"... Hur pappa alltid lyfte fram mig och såg min talang." (p. 130)

"... how dad always bigged me up and saw my talent."

"Framlyfta" means to highlight or emphasize, but unlike those terms it's also commonly applied to people. A good boss should "lyfta fram" his employees. On LinkedIn people say: I'm not writing this to "lyfta fram" myself but my marvellous team... Often the simplest English translation of "lyfta fram" would be "praise". 

But Sonia has come down to the farm with all guns blazing, and she means her sister Gun-Britt to feel the full implication of a highlight standing out from a contrasted background: Dad always put me and my exceptional gift in the spotlight, but naturally he left you in the shade.

Gun-Britt is a bit slow to fire up this morning, possibly because she knows she has a bombshell to drop on Sonia. The conversation turns to Gun-Britt's daughter Jenny, who's feeling poorly.

"Men hon lär väl bli bättre lagom till kvällen", sa Sonia. (p. 131)

"But she will likely be better enough this evening," said Sonia.

Gun-Britt still doesn't see it coming, but the curiously poised expression ought to warn her that Sonia has come with her own bombshell.

"Lär" is an auxiliary verb for talking about the future, but with an element of doubt: translate as "will", "may" or "should". Sonia isn't usually so understated, and it's a warning sign.

"Lagom" (suitably, appropriately, right enough) can be just a harmless filler word, and Gun-Britt doesn't challenge it. But the hint is there. Jenny will be better enough for what?

*

Elin Olofsson on sly in rural Jämtland and in her novels [Swedish with English translation]:

https://swedishenglish.org/news/selta-workshop/author-elin-olofsson-with-translators-in-london/

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