Kœnn njóti vel vænnar
vinr minn konu sinnar
— víst esat dapr of drósir
drengr — ok eigi lengi.
Njóti kœnn vinr minn vænnar konu sinnar vel ok eigi lengi; víst esat drengr dapr of drósir.
May my wise friend enjoy his fair wife well and keep [her] for a long time; indeed, the man is not downcast on account of women.
[3-4] víst esat drengr dapr of drósir ‘indeed, the man is not downcast on account of women’: In an attempt to retain the W reading drósar f. gen. sg. ‘of the woman’, Finnur Jónsson (TGT 1927, 100) tentatively suggests that the adv. víst ‘indeed’ could have been the noun vist ‘stay, visit’, which would yield the following reading: drengr esat dapr of vist drósar ‘the man is not downcast on account of the woman’s visit’. — [4] drengr ‘the man’: It is not clear who the subject of this parenthetic clause is, and in Skj B Finnur Jónsson tentatively suggests that drengr could refer to the poet rather than to the poet’s friend: manden (jeg?) ‘the man (I?)’.