Egwene al'Vere
Egwene al'Vere is a song from the Season 2 soundtrack of The Wheel of Time television series.
Lyrics
Verse 1
Old Tongue
hou'vakanor
Official English
Wrestless dreamer
Wrestless dreamer
Speeding forward
Overeager
Literal Translation
restless dreamer
restless dreamer
forwards quickly
patience lacking
Notes
Hou'vakanor seems to be a contraction of hou'dabor vakanor or "dream mover", that is, someone who dreams in a motion-filled way: "restless dreamer".
Blaethalam clearly means "impatient" or "overeager" from the official English, but since it carries a -lam suffix, we infer that blaeth/blaetha means "patience".
Verse 2
Old Tongue
Official English
Don't hasten to the end
Listen to the wind
Hear the sound of friends
Literal Translation
do not rush to end
do well to listen (to the) wind
hear the sound of friends
Notes
Velu means "to end"; man here means "pointy" or "sharp". A sharp end, in this case, seems to poetically mean a rush to end, or a desire to finish quickly. Beghoud is related to begoud, "bad" — it seems here to be used as a caution against, that is, "do not".
Similarly uiwa means "good", and here seems to mean something like "do well to (do this)".
Fei'dieb for "listen to the wind" is interesting as fei appears to be related to feia (speaker), feist (question), and feiro (exchange). It is unclear if it one of these other words contracted, indicating an alternative usage for one of them, or if fei by itself means to listen. The best guess is that feia/fei generically refers to either end of a conversation, possibly meaning "to exchange words" (since feiro is the verb for exchange). This be would be like if in English we called speaking "exchanging", and a speaker an "exchanger". Of course there are other words for speaking and listening: nosane, kazath, bolga, and bhash.
Verse 3
Old Tongue
hou'vakanor
hou'vakanor
ba'lal baichan
Official English
Wrestless dreamer
Wrestless dreamer
Don't envy others
Envy lingers
Literal Translation
restless dreamer
restless dreamer
look without envy
envy (is) sticky
Notes
The metaphor of stickiness here is colorful and more visceral than using, for example, the word for "remain", vinwon.
Verse 4
Old Tongue
Official English
Even good steel rusts
Be wary who you trust
Do what you must
Literal Translation
(even to) good steel comes rust
with steel guard (your) trust
move forward if (you) must
Notes
In my view one of the most poetically beautiful verses in any of the Old Tongue songs: the literal English renders into a three-fold rhyme, the Old Tongue is minimal but grammatically complete, and the metaphor is vivid.
Verse 5
Old Tongue
Official English
Remember who you are
Memories are never far
Let the river guide (you)
Take each step, eyes open wide
Literal Translation
your past remember
hold close (your) memories
let (the) river guide (you)
step while awake
Notes
Youna ahendrelle ranzak seems not to follow regular OVS order; perhaps more conventionally it would be youna ranzak ahendrelle or even ranzak ahendrelle youna. However, as is frequently the case, the order is chosen for lyrical melody.