Vindi fult hefir veslan anda
várn ofbeldið laungum feldan;
blár og ljótr í öfundar eitri
jafnan hefir eg næsta kafnað.
Reiðigall með sárum sullum
sviðrar mier um blásin iðrin;
hrygðin slítr af hjartarótum
harðan styrk í sútamyrkri.
Vindi fult ofbeldið hefir laungum feldan veslan anda várn; blár og ljótr hefir eg jafnan næsta kafnað í eitri öfundar. Reiðigall sviðrar mier með sárum sullum um blásin iðrin; hrygðin slítr harðan styrk af hjartarótum í sútamyrkri.
Puffed-up [lit. full of wind] pride has long felled our [my] wretched soul; black and ugly, I have constantly nearly choked on the venom of envy. The gall of wrath burns me with painful ulcers in my swollen bowels; sorrow tears the hard strength from the roots of the heart in the darkness of despair.
[3] blár ‘black, blue, blue-black’: ‘A distinction between the two can often not be drawn’ (ONP: blár). The word is used of bruised flesh (ONP: blár 4); Páll Hallsson translates blár ok ljótr as lividus et deformis ‘livid and deformed’ (Páll Hallsson 1773, 39). Cf. Kirsten Wolf’s discussion of the colour blue and her comment that in this st. ‘blár is clearly used in an abstract sense to denote sinful’ (Wolf 2006, 2).