artwork info | song info | legend | lyrics
artwork info
textile assemblage (felt, fabric, birch bark)
18″H x 18″W
2025
$240
song info
category ▸ Rímur | epic tales sung as alliterative, rhyming ballads (usually a cappella) that can be traced back to the 14th century
text ▸ Flóvent Jónsson
music ▸ Steingrímur Baldvinsson
listen here 🔈 https://tinyurl.com/54h68sm2
“Lífið gerist þungt og þreytt” is an Icelandic stanza that reflects on the burdens and challenges that come with aging. The poem is composed in the ferskeytt meter, characterized by four-line stanzas (typically seven syllables each) and an A-B-A-B rhyme scheme. The performer here is Margrét Hjálmarsdóttir (1918–2005).
Lífið gerist þungt og þreytt
Lífið gerist, lífið gerist,
þungt og þreytt
þegar fer að elli.
Fleira er en, fleira er en,
funi heitt,
fleira sker en járnið beitt.
English translation
Life becomes heavy and weary
Life becomes, life becomes,
heavy and weary
as old age approaches.
More things, more things,
burn than a hot flame,
more things cut than sharp iron.
Lyrics reproduced under fair use for artistic commentary.