“Hvat es manna þat mer okunnra
es mer hefir aukit ervitt sinni?
Vas-ek snivin sniovi ok slegin regni,
ok drifin doeggo; dauð vas-ek lengi.”
(Who is the man unknown to me that has put me to this weary journey? I was snowed on with snow, and smitten with rain, and dripped on with dew; dead was I lang syne.)
The refrain is:
“Nauðig sagðak. Nú mun-ek þegja!”
(Loath have I spoken. Now must I be silent!) Gray, in his translation, “The Descent of Odin,” puts it with eighteenth-century elegance:
“Again my wearied eyes I close,
Leave me, leave me to repose!”