Æsta þykkir einkum vandliga,
þess er þykkir vant vera;
alls á mis verðr, sá er einskis biðr;
fár hyggr þegjanda þörf.
Þykkir æsta einkum vandliga, þess er þykkir vant vera; sá er einskis biðr, verðr alls á mis; fár hyggr þörf þegjanda.
It seems [right] to ask especially carefully for what seems to be lacking; he who asks for nothing, will go amiss in everything; few consider the need of the one who is silent.
[1] þykkir: þarftu 1441ˣ
[1, 3] þykkir ‘it seems’: The repetition of þykkir has tempted eds, following Bugge, to emend the first þykkir to dugir ‘it helps, is of advantage’ (so Falk, Björn M. Ólsen, Skj B, Skald, Fidjestøl) but þykkir is found in 166bˣ and 58 other mss; þarftu ‘you need’ in 1441ˣ looks like an intelligent scribal emendation.