The Road Goes Ever On. Part 1
translated into Sindarin by Ryszard Derdzinski
The Road Goes Ever On (part of The Old Walking Song) is a very important poem which, according to Professor Tolkien, was composed by Mr. Bilbo Baggins. Its second part was composed by Frodo. It gave its title to the song cycle by J.R.R. Tolkien with music by Donald Swann (recently published by HarperCollinsPublishers). I present here my Sindarin translation of The Road Goes Ever On or I Râd Ui-Renia Lim. See also the second part of it by Frodo Baggins.
I Râd ui-renia lim a lim
dad od annon ial heriant.
Si palan-'wenniel nâ Râd,
a boe anim bo den padad,
aphadol den na-dail verai,
na-den ten ertha râd annaer
ias raith a lynd lim gevedir.
A na-man hi? Ú-bedithon.
Word-for-word translation:
The Road ever-goes on and on
Down from the doors from-which [it] began.
Now far-have-gone is [the] Road,
and it-is-necessary to-me on it to-walk,
Pursuing it with-feet eager,
Until it unite-with [a] road greater
Where paths and tracks many meet.
And to-what now? I-will-not-say.
Glossary:
*lim 'on'; this word can be found in the famous: Noro lim, noro lim, Asfaloth! 'Ride on, ride on, Asfaloth' (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, Chapter XII). It can be interpreted in many ways: one of the possible meanings is 'on' (although some suppose it means 'fast' or 'much').
*ial 'from which' and *ias 'in which'; compare these forms with ennas 'there; in that place' (< CE *enta-sê) with possible forms: *ennan 'to that place' (< CE *enta-nâ) and *ennal 'from that place' (< CE *enta-lô). If the last two forms do exist in Sindarin also *ias 'in which' (< CE *ja-sê), *ian 'to which' (< CE *ja-nâ) and *ial 'from which' (< CE *ja-lô) are possible.
*nâ '[it] is'; imperative no 'be!' is attested in Sindarin Our Father (VT#44). It is possible that the other derivatives of Sindarin *na- 'be, exist' were in use and *nâ '[it] is, [it] exists' is quite possible in this language.
*na-den 'until'; cf. Q tenna; na- 'to, towards' + *ten 'that' (lenited) [I first used this form in Pent Fangorn.
*lim 'many'; this word can be found in The Gnomish Lexicon (p. 54): lim 'many'.
*na-man 'whither?'; lit. 'to-what?'.