[from Figment.com] Poetry Remix: Find a poem in a language you can't understand. Do not look up the translation, but read it through out loud, sounding out the words and experiencing it as it appears to you on the page. Now write your own translation of the poem. Do not look up the real translation until you are COMPLETELY finished OR don't look it up ever and just enjoy your new poem as it is!
Vandrer-Liv (HC Anderson) (source)
Gaardhunden gjøer — dens Tænder ere saa skarpe.
En Qvinde træder i Forstuen ind,
Ak, Armod sidder paa Kjole og Kind,
Hun synger og spiller paa Harpe.
En ussel Hest bag Gjærdet søger sit Foder;
Hist holder Vognen med Dyne og Skuur,
Der sidder Manden i Guds Natur
Med Barnet, som skriger paa Moder.
Han kysser lidt og kniber til Forandring;
Snart kommer Qvinden med Penge og Brød,
Saa dier hun Barnet paa sit Skjød,
Mens Manden bereder til Vandring.
Wandering Life (a spurious translation from the Danish)
The watch dogs glower - their ears see far.
The peddler comes in from the cold.
O, if a man is kith or king,
Still the dogs howl.
In our cubbyhole, the dogs guard the fire,
and so as Danes or Swedes might say,
They protect their own Mother Nature.
Not a barnicle, nor yet a mother,
I have kissed him in dreams and foggy rains;
Against the coming cold dreamed of pennies or bread,
Seen the dogs bay at my doorstep
While alone I wander til waking.
[Google's translation may not be much better.]
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