I thought I heard the old man say ...
It's either an anchor-weighing song or a song about the first month of pay that sailors got, finally, long after having put to sea.
Just one more pull and then belay,
Oh, poor old man
It sprang to mind in a too-warm café on the southern tip of a west-coast island on the old sea highway of Norway (it is still the sea highway). I was talking to the old man resting in a chair by the wall after bringing me my waffle and my watery coffee. There was a map on the wall with a red pin stuck into the tiny image of Iceland. I remarked on it. Oh yes, he said. He had been four, five, six times on summer fishing boats in the north of Iceland: Skagafjörður, Ísafjörður, Siglufjörður, Akureyri, chasing the herring.
I came in on the chorus: And then the herring disappeared. (I thought: He must have been a young man then. The herring boom, the herring ævintýri -- adventure, fairy tale -- was many years ago.)
Oh, yes, gone, bort og vekk, svart hav -- "black seas."
It had been silver seas when the herring ran. There are songs about it.
I was sorry to have to leave to catch my bus.
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"bort og vekk"? Not "borte vekk"?
Aner ikke, så tåpelig er jeg.
But both bort and vekk are old accusatives, whereas borte and vekke are old datives, slik at jeg ikke hadde brukt borte og vekk i den samme setningen.
But your rettskrivning is doubtless better than mine at this point.
Langt fra tåpelig.
Men resultatene taler for seg selv. Idiomer er sjelden logiske.
Jæja. Det sier mye -- og dog: det står margt på nettet som er helt feil akkurat fordi det er et typisk native speaker feil. Men likevel.
Det burde har hetet idiomter eller noe sånt.
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