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  • Leda og svanurinn
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Leda og svanurinn

Thorarinn Eldjárn

Af losta hafði hún lagst á Tjarnarbrúna
og lokkað hann sér í fang með brauði og kvaki.
Í algleyminu er æpti konan: – Núna!
mun álftin hafa fælst, með vængjablaki

hófst fuglinn upp og hræðilegu gargi
en henni tókst að klemma hann stæltum lærum
í girnd sinni eftir guðdómlegu fargi
en gekk of langt og kramdi hann í þeim skærum.

Þá heyrði hún hvernig sírenurnar sungu
sveif að lið með kylfur, húfur, merki.
Þeim lágu svofell töluð orð á tungu:
– Þar tókst okkur loks að standa þig að verki!

En fjölmiðlarnir fjölluðu um það svona:
‘Fuglaníðingur reyndist vera kona.’


Thorarinn Eldjárn

from Ort (Reykjavík: Forlagið, 1991)

Reproduced by permission of the author and translators.

Tags:

birds Classical Greek Icelandic myths Translations wooing and courtship

Translations of this Poem

Leda and the Swan

Translator: David McDuff


By Tjörnin Lake, from lust, she had lain down,
and lured him to her arms with calls and bread.
In ecstasy the woman cried out: ‘Now!’
The swan appeared to shy, his wings outspread,

and rose aloft with an almighty hiss
but then she gripped him firmly in her thighs
in wild desire for god-embodied kiss,
but went too far, and crushed him in that vice.

Just then she heard the sirens’ haunting song,
and suddenly the place got very packed
as badges, caps and truncheons came along:
‘At last we’ve got you, caught you in the act!’

But all the media focused on the human:
‘Swan-abuser turned out to be woman!’

About this poem

translated with Bernard Scudder

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Thorarinn Eldjárnb.1949

Thorarinn Eldjárn was born in Reykjavik, studied at the Univesity of Lund and then returned to Reykjavik to live. He is a poet, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, translator and children’s author, and describes himself as first and foremost a...
More about Thorarinn Eldjárn

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