“Barbaric Yawp” in Swedish

The article discusses the pros and cons of the three Swedish translations of the “yawp” and comments on their historical context and general character. The three Swedish versions differ in background and tone but are very similar in their treatment of the yawp itself. In his complete Swedish version of the poem (“Sång om mig själv”) 1935, Karl Afred Svensson translated “barbaric yawp” as barbariska rovfågelskri; “barbaric cry of a bird of prey.” Erik Lindegren followed Svensson except in spelling in his partial translation (“Ur Sången om mig själv”) from 1946, while Rolf Aggestam merely changed the cry to a howl—barbariska rovfågelstjut—when he offered a complete translation of Whitman’s first edition of the poem in 1983 (“Sången om mig själv”).