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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

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