TIX - Jeg vil ikke leve - Translation

[yuuago]

I've fallen down a TIX-shaped rabbit hole. This is unexpected, but I guess I'll just enjoy the study motivation for now.

Today I translated Jeg vil ikke leve, which is one hell of an earworm, and I feel like I'm going to have this song stuck in my head for ages. (Honestly, this one reminds me of that horrible period in my life from late 2007-2010 when I broke up with my then-SO and then everything seemed to go wrong, but anyway....)

In the past, with Norwegian, I've had a habit of taking on projects that are much too difficult for me. The first time I tried to translate something, it was when I was very new to Norwegian. Kaizers Orchestra's "Stjerner i posisjon" had just come out, and I was working with a friend to try and get the gist of it from the audio, since there weren't any English translations out yet and nobody had posted the Norwegian lyrics anywhere either. Those familiar with Kaizers are probably not surprised that we had a very tough time.

This song is much closer to my level, haha. For the most part, I haven't run into any big difficulties, but there are still some parts that I found challenging, at least in the sense that I had to look some things up and chew over the best way to put something into English without taking too many liberties with it. It's been fun!

Norwegian lyrics under the cut + my translation and notes to self:


Jeg vil ikke leve

Jeg ser ikke hvor dette ender
Hjertet mitt er tomt og bare brenner
Jeg vet jeg burde vente og se an
Men da tenker jeg på deg med en annen
Og jeg klarer ikke være venner

Så hva gjør vi nå? Drikker alene
Jeg vil ikke leve, men jeg vil ikke dø
Så hva gjør vi nå? Ligger her nede
Jeg vil ikke leve, men jeg vil ikke dø
Og ingen av mine venner skjønner at jeg har problemer
Bare meg
Så hva gjør vi nå? Drikker alene
Jeg vil ikke leve, men jeg vil ikke dø.

Jeg orker ikke, hvorfor må jeg
Virke så perfekt når jeg er så lei
Jeg har snakket med Gud, men han har dratt sin vei
Nå har jeg en djevel inni meg
Og jeg vet du ikke venter på meg

Så hva gjør vi nå? Drikker alene
Jeg vil ikke leve, men jeg vil ikke dø
Så hva gjør vi nå? Ligger her nede
Jeg vil ikke leve, men jeg vil ikke dø
Og ingen av mine venner skjønner at jeg har problemer
Bare meg
Så hva gjør vi nå? Drikker alene
Jeg vil ikke leve, men jeg vil ikke dø.

---

I don't want to live

I can't see where this ends
My heart is empty and just burns
I know I should wait and see*
But then I think of you with another
And I can't handle being friends

So what do we do now? Drink alone
I don't want to live, but I don't want to die
So what do we do now? Lie down here
I don't want to live, but I don't want to die
And none of my friends realize** I'm having problems
Only me
So what do we do now? Drink alone
I don't want to live, but I don't want to die.

I can't bear it, why do I have to
Act so perfect when I feel so nasty***
I've talked with God, but he's gone on his way
Now I have a devil inside me
And I think you aren't waiting for me

So what do we do now? Drink alone
I don't want to live, but I don't want to die
So what do we do now? Lie down here
I don't want to live, but I don't want to die
And none of my friends realize I'm having problems
Only me
So what do we do now? Drink alone
I don't want to live, but I don't want to die.

---

* jeg burde vente å se an – to create an impression of something before making a decision; to wait before making a decision. Noting this one down because it's a finicky construction and I don't come across it often. Found a good explanation of it in this duolingo thread (down the page), which is great because none of my books cover this sort of thing. https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/12056109/Det-g%C3%A5r-ikke-an
** ingen av mine venner skjønner – you can translate skjønner as "understand" or "realize" and I'm not sure which is intended here; it makes sense either way, but the effect in English is different depending on which one you use.
*** jeg er så lei – I kind of wanted to translate lei as depressed/melancholy, because that's the meaning I think it's getting at – that sort of thing where you feel like absolute garbage and all you want to do is flop down and stare at walls – but I didn't want to get too far from the actual words used.