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  • Húsafell síðsumars
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Húsafell síðsumars

Gyrdir Elíasson

Við grillum á veröndinni og kofinn
orðinn vel reyktur. Ég laumast frá
eldamennskunni og geng út í hraun-
ið og ætla að fara alveg yfir að
ánni sem ég heyri niða í dálítilli
fjarlægð, en hraunið er illt yfir-
ferðar og ég er á nýjum skóm sem
þola ekki nibburnar. Ég sest niður
og horfi á kónguló sem baksar við
vef sinn og fer að hugsa hvernig
svona lítil og aumingjaleg skepna
geti fundið upp á slíkum hlutum ein-
sömul og það munar ekki miklu að
ég líti til himins augnablik


Gyrdir Elíasson

from Tvö tungl (Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1989)

Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher.

Tags:

cooking Icelandic Robert the Bruce spiders volcanoes

Translations of this Poem

Húsafell in Late Summer

We are barbecuing on the veranda and the cabin
is well smoked. I sneak away
from the cooking and walk out into the
lava intending to go right over to
the river I hear murmuring at some
distance, but the lava is rough
underfoot and I am wearing new shoes that
cannot stand the spikes. I sit down
and watch a spider toiling at
its web and start thinking how
such a small and feeble creature
can invent such things on its
own and I come within an inch of
looking heavenwards for an instant

Source: from Brushstrokes of Blue: The Young Poets of Iceland, edited by Páll Valsson (London: Shad Thames, 1994). Translated by Bernard Scudder, reproduced by kind permission of the translator.

About this poem

This poem, representing Iceland, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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Gyrdir Elíasson

Eliasson has been a full time writer almost all his adult life, well-known in Iceland for his poetry and novels as well as his short stories. His collection The Yellow House was awarded the Icelandic Literature Prize and the...
More about Gyrdir Elíasson

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