


Tóti hefur ekkert að gera.
og
allan
But now he goes to Gulli to see if he can come out and play: (Gulli is a nick name; Gulli´s real name is most likely Guðlaugur (guð-laugur; pronounce gveuth-leu-g-eurr))
-Can you come out (to have some fun) on your bike.
-Well, Gulli replies, a bit troubled: (vand-ræði : trouble, embarrassement; vand-ræða+lega)
-My bike has a flat tire. (sprungið verb springa)
But can’t we go and do something else?
I have tried to inflate it, Gulli says, but without any success. (til-gangs-laust : futile, purposeless; til-gangur : purpose, goal, intention)
Maybe it is the little rubber in the valve there. (kann ski /-ske; = ef til vill, e.t.v.)
-What “little rubber”, Tóti spits out, disdainfully.
-Is this some kind of an antique piece?
-I got it ! Tóti says, when he spots paint and pencils.
-We should paint your garage-door, Gulli, shouldn’t we ? (bíl-skúrs-hurð)
-It looks terrible.
-Then it will be fun to see your dad’s face when he comes home to-night - oh boy!
But Gulli does not want to paint unless he first asks his mom if they are allowed to.
-No, no no! It only becomes a mess. (ein-tómt)
-Your dad is going to paint the door sometimewhen he has the time to do it. (ein-hvern tíma : sometime;
note: hann pabbi þinn - he, your father (often used so in Icelandic: hann Gulli, hann Tóti, þeir Tóti og Gulli)
-You can watch then, yes? But now go out and play,
-Ég veit nú ekki, svarar Tóti.
-Hvað eigum við að koma að gera? spyr Gulli.
-What shall we do? Gulli asks.
-I don´t know, Tóti replies.
In the sandbox little kids are playing. (sand-kassi; smá-börn)
They are so happy, building castles of sand, making roads. (sand-kastali)
Believe it or not: Tóti just had to bully them as he passed by. (endi+lega; fram hjá)
… and he throws pebbles to destroy what they were building.
Everything is ruined.
(splundra : shatter)
One of the kids gets sand into his eye.
They weep noisily.
Tóti always keeps pebbles in his pockets……
Tvær
Þær
nú all
gera sig líklegar til að hefna ófara litlu
stelpur eru að passa litlu krakkana.
Two older girls are baby-sitting.
They come at once, looking warlike. (víga+legur)
Seemingly determined to revenge for the disaster that the little kids suffered. (lík+legur; ó-farir)
Tóti veit alltaf hvenær skynsamlegt er að forða sér.
Tóti, quickly, takes to running.
Gulli, of course, too.
(auð-vitað)
Tóti always knows when it is wise to leave the stage.
(skyn-sam+legt)
Now they pass by where a lady is watering her garden.
She does not notice when Tóti climbs over the fence ….
…… and turns the water off.
To begin with, she becomes surprised. Then angry, (bál-reið : (fire-) furious)
… when she sees Tótí sneak quickly out of the garden: -Go away, little boys. (strák-pjakkur)
---
You are not supposed to be sneaking around in other people’s gardens.
-She was pissed off, man! (fer+lega)
Actually, Gulli was amused too /found this terribly funny. (ofsa+lega)
Obviously, it is not any fun for Tóti to roam about in the streets, having nothing to do. (greini+lega)
He definitely has too much un-used vigor. (vand-ræði)
-I got an idea ! Tóti says all of a sudden.
-Let us try to hit street-lamps. That is OK, as nobody owns them.
Then nobody can scold us.
So saying, he picks up pebbles from his pocket, and………
Starts throwing at a street-lamp, trying to hit it as a target.
And he dares Gulli to also try to hit it.
Then, all of a sudden, we hear someone shout snappily:
-Tóti ! What on earth are you doing, little boy!
Are you going to break the glass - or what are you up to?
This is Sjöfn, his older sister, shouting.
She is arriving home from work.
-Oh, none of your business, Tóti answers.
(skipta sér af : meddle up with)
But - well - he stops throwing his stones.
-This is not yours at all, he shouts back at her.
-Oh, yes, my little lad, Sjöfn replies.
(góði minn, drengur, væni, are used to address)
I pay for the street-lights, and dad and mom and everyone in town.
-We pay taxes, and that money is used, among other things, to have lights in the streets. (út-svar; götu-lýs+ing)
Where is your bike?
(eigin+lega)
They tell her that Gulli´s bike has a flat tire, and his father never has the time to take it to the repairer. (aldr-ei;
I suppose you two have ample time to repair a tire.
I does not seem that you have anything more urgent to do.
:
Sjöfn teaches the boys how to take the tire off, and how to get the inner rubber-tube out.
-And I emphasize, she says, that it is much more difficult a task to repair lightpoles that little stupid fools like you two are damaging.
Or do you perhaps assume that the street-lights just grow up from the earth all by themselves or what?
In order to find the damage, you pump up the tube and then observe where the air-bubbles show up.
Then dry well all the wet.
Scratch a little bit, neatly, around the hole, so that the glue gets a better grip.
Clean the outer tire thoroughly on the inside.
If you leave in all the dirt, the rubber-hose will simply soon break again.
Is the glue now getting dry?
Don´t we need to file out a little bit the edges of the repair-pad that we just glued on? (ör-lítið; kring-um)
Then now we put the rubber-hose into the tire again.
It is difficult to get the tire onto the wheel again. Gulli, then you pump it up again.
Wash your hands, Tóti ! she shout after him.
þvo þú)
She tells Tóti to go up-stairs and lay the table.
-You will have to have something to eatbefore you go out, she says.
Tóti always claims his sister Sjöfn to be too dominating, and, probably, there is some truth in that.
But she knows how to repair a flat tire.
Gulli almost envies Tóti a little, for having this kind of a sister. (öf-und)
-And now you go (/cycle) to the new quarter in town that is under construction, and then you can see with your own eyes, streetlightning being installed.
Then you might, you little fools, realize that these lights need (/cost)) money and effort.
(allt af; svo sem; ör-lítið (a little bit); öf-unda (af-unna) fyrir-höfn (að hafa fyrir einhverju); götu-lýs+ing)
Eh, look, Gulli asks with some hesitation: -Shall we go to the new quarter of town, or what do you say?
Tóti, rather annoyed, answers: -We can just do that as anything else, but not because my sister Sjöbba said so.
I do not obey her orders.
Of course, the street-lamps are somebody’s property.
Everyone knows only too well that they do not grow out of the earth all by themselves.
(auð-vitað, ein-hver) (sögu-lok)
or do you perhaps assume that light-poles grow up from the earth all by themselves?