Words by

John Rogers

@brainlove

With so much hype around Iceland’s 2019 Eurovision song, there have been various translations of the “Hatrið Mun Sigra” lyrics doing the rounds.

As you might expect from Nocco-crazed Cyberdog twinks Hatari, it’s not your average Eurovision ditty. “Life’s purposeless confusion / the void will swallow all” isn’t something you would have heard from runner-up Friðrik Ómars is his eye-clawingly bland “Hvað ef ég get ekki elskað?” (“What If I Can’t Have Love?”, in English.)

The band released an official translation of the songs’s lyrics—made by award-winning literary translator Philip Roughton—last night. One eye-catching passage goes: “Hate will prevail, and Europe’s heart impale; burn off its web of lies. Now from that conflagration—rise in unity.”

Having adopted the line that the song is a cautionary tale about what would happen to a unity-free Europe, it sounds more like a particularly poetic pitch for the next Mad Max sequel.

But anyway: now you know. Find the full “Hatrið Mun Sigra” lyrics are below.

HATE WILL PREVAIL

Debauchery unconstrained.
Hangover uncontained.
Life’s purposeless confusion
the void will swallow all.

Hate will prevail.
Every joy derail.
Just treacherous illusion,
fraud, futility.

All that I saw.
Tears ran raw.
All that I gave.
That I once gave.
I gave you all.

Universal obfuscation.
Unilateral execration.
From gullible delusion
escape will be curtailed.
The void will swallow all.

Hate will prevail,
and Europe’s heart impale;
burn off its web of lies.
Now from that conflagration
Rise in unity.

All that I saw.
Tears ran raw.
All that I gave.
That I once gave.
I gave you all.

All that I saw.
Tears ran raw.
All that I gave.
That I once gave.
I gave you all.

Hate will prevail.
Love to no avail.
Hate will prevail.
Every joy derail.
Just treacherous illusion,
fraud, futility.

Hate will prevail.

Read more about Hatari here.