Yurden du art fur af yurden du vis skav’d
Oktoa yurden nu ven dœd.
Op fra yurden skal du Opstaa,
naar Herren laar syne bastnan blaa.
Th. Irvine’s translation:
“Earth thou art, for of earth thou wast made, — to earth thou returns now when dead. From the earth thou shalt arise when the Lord shall blow the last trumpet”.
Th. Irvine writes at the end of line 2: “ven dœd” and appears to understand these words in the translation as “when dead”. It is, however, probably “vende at (ad)”, i.e.: “vende atter (tilbage)” (to return), which words are in accordance with the (original) formula, and would be missed if the translation reads “when dead”. In this case, there would be no verb in the sentence (Irvine inserts “return” in his translation: to earth thou returns now when dead); moreover, English “when” can hardly have been pronounced “ven” in Shetlandic.
Words and forms showing Danish characteristics in the formula, are: “opstaa” for “upstand or opstand”, to arise; “naar” in sense of when (conj.), and the contracted from “laar”, let, arising from “lather, laðer” with d aspirate, a pronunciation also occurring in Mod. Danish: lar.
It may be assumed that the formula dates back to the close of the 14th or the beginning of the 15th century.
