Skips láta menn skammar rár;
skatna þykkir hugrinn grár;
tungan leikr við tanna sár;
trauðla er gengt á ís of vár.
Mjǫk fár er sér œrinn einn;
eyvit týr, þótt skyndi seinn;
gǫfgask mætti af gengi hverr;
gǫrva þekkik, sumt hvé ferr.
Menn láta rár skips skammar; hugrinn skatna þykkir grár; tungan leikr við sár tanna; trauðla er gengt á ís of vár. Mjǫk fár er sér œrinn einn; eyvit týr, þótt seinn skyndi; hverr mætti gǫfgask af gengi; þekkik gǫrva, hvé sumt ferr.
Men say the ship’s sailyards are short; the heart of magnates seems grey; the tongue plays with the aching tooth; it is scarcely safe to walk on ice in spring. Very few are sufficient in themselves; it helps not at all though the slow one hastens; each man could gain stature from the company he keeps; I recognise fully how some things go.
[1] rár (f. acc. pl.) ‘sailyards’: Sailyards are horizontal arms supporting the sail, and the rá was typically long and slender (see McGrail 1998, 232; Jesch 2001a, 162). The meaning of the adage, which also occurs in Hávm 74/3, is disputed. This short yardarm has a long bibliography, beginning with Eiríkr Magnússon (1888, 334), who proposed as context a shipwreck in which a drowning man, clutching a floating yardarm, would wish it longer. Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1915b, 78) made the sensible equation: small sailyard = slow ship. Falk (1922, 174) noted that a short yardarm was a good thing when battling gusts in a fjord. Heusler (1915-16, 115) returned to the improbable reading (CPB II, 365) of ON rár ‘nooks’ as ‘cabins’: ‘scant (i.e. cramped) are a ship’s berths.’ In HHund I 49/4 (NK 137), rár langar ‘long sailyards’ are a good thing. Hermann Pálsson (1999a, 202) recalled the double-entendre proverb in which reiði means both ‘anger’ and ‘(ship’s) tackle’: stutt (or skömm) er skipsmanna reiði ‘short is the anger/equipment of sailors’. See also Ísl. Málsh.: reiði; skipmaður.