"Stagecoach" Mary Fields, America's first African female postal worker, was known for her fearless delivery of mail across hundreds of miles in the dangerous Wild West.
Born a slave in the 1830s in the South, Fields found work with the help of a nun named Mother Amadeus after the Civil War. Initially, she worked in an Ohio convent, then moved to St. Peter’s Convent in Montana.
Despite working among nuns, Fields was far from nun-like. She was a regular visitor to saloons, smoked cigars, got into brawls, and wasn't shy to use her guns. After an altercation with a janitor at St. Peter’s, she was set up by Mother Amadeus with a job at the U.S. Postal Service in 1895.
Fields, the first African woman and only the second woman overall to hold a mail route in the U.S., demonstrated great resilience and courage. In her 60s, she dutifully protected her mail with a rifle and a revolver, unfazed by danger.
She often traveled 300 miles a week to cover her route. In snow, she would strap on her snowshoes and carry the mail in a sack across her shoulders, ensuring it reached its destination.
Her commitment to her job and strong character made her a local hero in Cascade, Montana. She was the only woman allowed to drink at the local bar who wasn't a sex worker, ate for free at the Cascade Hotel, and the townspeople built her a new home when hers burned down.
After eight years of mail delivery, she started a laundry business. Upon her death in 1914, the Cascade community held one of the largest funerals the town had ever witnessed in her honor.
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Bashar Murad - Vestrið villt (Wild Wild West) - translation and notes
Bashar Murad's Söngvakeppnin entry, "Wild Wild West", was performed in the second semifinal last Saturday with Matthías's Icelandic lyrics. They are a translation of the official English lyrics, but there are some interesting differences that would be fun to ramble about a little, so here's a backtranslation of the Icelandic lyrics into English and some notes!
Compare to the official English lyrics here.
Official Icelandic lyrics
Er enn á ferðinni
á sömu bylgjunni
Veit ei hvert skal haldið
í leit að hamingjunni
Er grjót sem veltur fram
get aldrei staðið kyrr
Þegar þú verður bitur og vilt gera betur
þarf að breyta til
Hendi mér upp á veginn
svo syng ég þína skál
Tómar hendur, tómir vasar
en í hjarta mínu brennur bál
Ótaminn villingur
allt frá því ‘93
og mig skortir allt fé – ég sver það breytist nú
(Því ég) ætla að fara í vestrið villt,
þar sem illt og spillt
Er besta fólkið
Og þó ég geri mjög gott mót
Fari fót fyrir fót
Er ég aldrei hólpinn
Ég ætla að fara í vestrið villt,
Þar sem mild og tryllt
Eru kaup og skipti
Ég segi já, ekkert mál, að veði legg mína sál
Svo er bara að taka sénsinn
Ég er enn á ferðinni
ekki kominn langt á veg
Ég glamra á gítarinn, með leðurstígvélin,
og slóð í sandinn dreg
Klæddur fyrir hlutverkið, vona að þið hrífist með
Tók mig þrjátíu ár að átta mig á – að vera bara ég
Ætla að fara í vestrið villt,
þar sem illt og spillt
Er besta fólkið
Og þó ég geri mjög gott mót
Fari fót fyrir fót
Er ég aldrei hólpinn
Ætla að fara í vestrið villt,
Þar sem mild og tryllt
Eru kaup og skipti
Ég segi já, ekkert mál, að veði legg mína sál
Svo er bara að taka sénsinn
Ég er bara að taka sénsinn
Velkomin í vestrið villt…
Velkomin í vestrið villt,
Velkomin í vestrið villt,
Þú færð einn séns
til að hamra járnið
Þarna er það – tækifærið
(Því ég) Ætla að fara í vestrið villt,
þar sem illt og spillt
Er besta fólkið
Og þó ég geri mjög gott mót
Fari fót fyrir fót
Er ég aldrei hólpinn
Ætla að fara í vestrið villt,
Þar sem mild og tryllt
Eru kaup og skipti
Ég segi já, ekkert mál, að veði legg mína sál
Svo er bara að taka sénsinn
Ég er bara að taka sénsinn
Velkomin í vestrið villt.
English backtranslation
I'm still on the road,
on the same wavelength
I don't know where I'm headed
in search of happiness
I'm like a rolling stone,
can't stay in one place
When you get bitter and want to do better
you have to make a change
Getting up on the road,
then I'll sing a toast to you
Empty hands, empty pockets
but in my heart there's a burning flame
I'm an untamed wild thing
ever since '93
and I've got no money - I swear that's changing now
('Cause I'm) Going to the west that's wild,
where the best people
are wicked and corrupt
And even if I'm very successful
Take one step at a time
I'm never safe
I'm going to the west that's wild
where trade and barter
is mild and unhinged
I say yes, no problem, put my soul on the line
and then it's just taking that chance
I'm still on the road
not very far along
I strum my guitar with my leather boots,
dragging a trail through the sand
Dressed for the role, hope you're swept up with me
Took me thirty years to figure out - just being me
I'm going to the west that's wild,
where the best people
are wicked and corrupt
And even if I'm very successful
Take one step at a time
I'm never safe
I'm going to the west that's wild
where trade and barter
is mild and unhinged
I say yes, no problem, put my soul on the line
and then it's just taking that chance
I'm just taking that chance
Welcome to the west that's wild...
Welcome to the west that's wild
Welcome to the west that's wild
You get one chance
to strike while the iron is hot
There it is - opportunity
('Cause I'm) Going to the west that's wild,
where the best people
are wicked and corrupt
And even if I'm very successful
Take one step at a time
I'm never safe
I'm going to the west that's wild
where trade and barter
is mild and unhinged
I say yes, no problem, put my soul on the line
and then it's just taking that chance
Welcome to the west that's wild.
Translation notes
The first thing to remark upon here is the title and lyric vestrið villt. The actual common Icelandic term for the Wild West, which is also the normal, obvious way to translate it, is "Villta vestrið", which literally just means "the wild west".
So why is the song called "Vestrið villt" and not "Villta vestrið", exactly? Most obviously, "Villta vestrið" is four syllables where "wild, wild west" is three, and Matthías wanted the equivalent of "Welcome to the wild, wild west" to scan properly and sound good. Icelandic word order is often somewhat flexible, especially in poetry, and it'd be fairly normal to turn the phrase around to "Vestrið villta". But to make it three syllables he also leaves the definite ending off the adjective. That's a very unusual, poetic thing to do, though not by any means unknown - poems and lyrics do the same thing occasionally, but it has a definite unusual, antiquated sound to it. You would never refer to the Wild West like that in normal language.
Now, the primary motivation for translating it this way is almost certainly just the syllable count. It's a construction that is as a translation of "wild west" while preserving the rhythm of the song. But the overall effect that it gives, at least to me, is kind of interesting - it sort of decouples the lyric from the actual American Wild West, which ultimately has a different name, and instead puts those two words together in a way where you might be more likely to consider them separately. It's the west, and it's wild. And that actually feels kind of appropriate to the song! Bashar may be wearing a cowboy hat, but he isn't literally going to the Wild West - the story in the music video, after all, shows him going to Iceland. To capture this part of the feel of it, I rendered the lyric as "the west that's wild" - which coincidentally also scans appropriately in English - although that doesn't capture the unusual poetic nature of the phrasing.
There are little lines in the Icelandic translation that are sort of a bit more colorful than the English equivalent, which is fun. "I gotta hit the highway, yeah, here I go again" is rendered as "Hendi mér upp á veginn, svo syng ég þína skál", which I backtranslated as "Getting up on the road, then I'll sing a toast to you," with the toast being original to the Icelandic translation. (It also technically uses an expression that literally means throwing himself up onto the road, which has a bit more force to it than "I gotta".) "Got a can-do attitude and nothing to lose" becomes Bashar wagering his soul, which sounds a bit more dramatic.
The English version says that in the wild, wild west the only rest is for the wicked, a negation of the Biblical idiom "No rest for the wicked": in other words, in the wild, wild west, everyone is punished but the wicked. We don't really have an equivalent idiom in Icelandic, and Matthías went a different route that's fun in a different way, going for the internal rhyme of illt and spillt with the villt in vestrið villt. That rhythmic rhyme has a good and crunchy sound that I like a lot. The meaning winds up being a little different but having a similar air: in the west the the wicked and corrupt are the 'best people'. Similarly, later the English version speaks of the wild, wild west being the best place for business, but Matthías goes for the crunchy internal rhyme with villt again, this time with mild and tryllt. They're sort of antonyms and I'm not quite sure how to interpret trade and barter being both mild and unhinged, but the rhyme still sounds neat. Bashar has studded chaps and is playing spaghetti guitar, but Matthías's translation ditches the studded chaps (I would have no idea how to translate that either) and calling it a spaghetti guitar specifically in favor of the new appropriately Western imagery of dragging a trail through the sand.
Where in English, even if you do your best and you pass the test doesn't mean you'll make it, in Icelandic even if I'm very successful and take one step at a time I'm never safe, which makes the whole thing sound a bit more dangerous - emphasizing having to be careful and yet not being safe, rather than the difficulty of making it.
The English "Why the hell wouldn't I risk it?" becomes "Svo er bara að taka sénsinn", or "Then it's just taking that chance." Séns is slang, though older slang, and actually derives from the same root as chance, though I think it came here via the Nordic languages rather than English. Slightly different meaning but same general point about choosing to take that risk, different lines that I think are both fairly punchy in different ways.
There's one bit where I think the translation may be outright losing a bit of nuance. In English "I dressed up and I put it on, hoping I'd fit the scene / Took thirty damn years to figure out, I just gotta be me" sounds to me like he's describing having originally tried to dress up for a role and tried to fit in before he discovered he just had to be himself, but in the translation, "Klæddur fyrir hlutverkið, vona að þið hrífist með" is in the present tense, as if he's describing now being dressed up for a role and currently hoping to sweep this audience with him, more as if this current role is the 'being himself' he's figured out. But that's only if I'm understanding the nuance in the original English correctly, of course - I would imagine Matthías worked with Bashar directly on the translation and he approved of the phrasing.
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