"The crayfish are alive when they die."
Translation:Kräftorna är levande när de dör.
7 Comments
890
Haha, this is a literary allusion. Johan Henric Kellgren (1751–1795) wrote the funniest poem of his time, Dumboms Lefverne ('The life of Dunce') (1791)
The Dunce in the poem has many ideas, for instance in literature he prefers a clear style, because, as he puts it, the simpler, the easier. ('Ju simplare, ju enklare'). He is also impressed with how Providence has placed rivers everywhere where there are big cities…
He is very moved when he sees crayfish crawling in the pan, about to get cooked, (as you probably know, crayfish should be alive until cooked) because (original spelling):
»Nej, ingen dör så grymt som dessa,
— Skrek han — ty de dö lefvande.»
»No, nobody dies as cruelly as these,
– He cried – for they die living.»
I actually thought of M de La Palisse, whose famous epigraphe reads "Here lies Lord de La Palice: Were he not dead, he would still live."
Just saw this and I'm a little confused - I see "Ju simplare, ju enklare," but my understanding was the construction is "Ju... Desto..." Am I wrong about this?
- 890
Both ways are used, but ju … desto is the standard version and ju … ju is considered more colloquial.
Sadly I undetstood very little of that swedish, is it more literary language or something?
- 890
Of course, but also the language has changed quite a bit since 1791. I think most Swedes today wouldn't understand the poem as a whole completely.
