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OT Re: Another note-- Norwegian?

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Wednesday, January 17, 2001, 17:20
Lars Henrik Mathiesen me respondió:
>This looks very much like Danish-influenced Norwegian (bokmål) from >about a hundred years ago, perhaps written by someone who'd lived in >the US for a long time. My best guess at the proper spelling: > >Jeg blir gammel, kjære du, >og mit hår det gråner nu. >Sølver stænk om issen står, >de gå[r] mod de gamle år. >Ak min kjære, kjær er du, >gammel bliver aldrig du. >Ak min kjære, kjær er du, >gammel bliver aldrig du. > >[Omitting -r in the plural of verbs is an archaic feature that went >out of the Danish spoken language in the 1600's, and was dropped from >the spelling in 1902, IIRC. I don't know if it was ever a feature of >the Dano-Norwegian norm]. > >Rough translation: > >I'm growing old, darling, >and my hair is greying. >Silver threads around the pate, >they are going to old age. >Oh my darling, I love you, >old you will never grow. >Oh my darling, I love you, >old you will never grow. > >Could this be a rendering of the song "Silver Threads among the Gold?">
Thank you Lars. I suspect you're right on all counts. My aunt's grandmother had a long-time Swedish or Norwegian housekeeper, Julia Olson, who died in the 1930s-- the book this fell out of dated from 1929, and contained other clippings from the period. Other possibilities: living as she did in South Dakota, she would have had plenty of 1st-generation Norw. contemporaries who might have given it to her. At that time and throughout her life, my aunt turned her hand to song-writing (she saved her rejection slips too), so it's quite possible she meant to do something with this. It seems to be in her handwriting, which would account for the mishearings and mis-spellings (AFAIK she knew no Norwegian).