Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1962, Side 77

EINAR JÓNSSON
59
achievement: He had wished to soar
on angel’s wings but, on approach-
ing the end of his days, felt that
he had moved at a snail’s pace in
expressing what he desired to say.
To me, however, the work cannot
be taken as a reflection upon the
artist’s achievements, which by no
means can be considered insignifi-
cant, but rather as a testimony to
the loftiness of his aspirations. He
desired his art to serve life. His
works attest his unswerving de-
votion to his concept of the nature
and purpose of life and art. Indeed,
he can be said to have succeeded in
crystallizing some of the “vibrations
and echoes of the celestial music”
for which he liked to listen.
WORKS CONSULTED
Gröndal, Benedikt, and Behrens, Charles G.,
ed. Einar Jónsson. Stockholm: KF:s Bokför-
lag, 1954 Photographs of Jónsson’s works and
of his museum; with an anonymous intro-
duction in Icelandic and with abstracts in
Danish, English, French and German.
Jónsson, Einar. Minningar (Memoirs). Reyk-
javik: Bókfellsútgáfan, 1944.
—Myndir (Pictures). Copenhagen: Prentsmidja
Martius Truelsens, B1925. Includes an article
by Dr. Gudmundur Finnbogason on Jónsson's
art, entitled "Einar Jónsson myndaskáld”
(Einar Jónsson: The Poet Sculptor) trans-
lated into English and Danish, pp. 62-80.
—Myndir 11. Reykjavik: Rikisprentsmdjan
Gutenberg, 1937.
—Skodanir (Views). Reykjavik: Bókfellsút-
gáfan, 1944.
MONA LISA
Smile on, smile on. Your smile may be a grin
Of impish glee. Smile on without a care.
Smile on. You smile may prove a curse, a sin.
Smile on as long and sweetly as you dare.
For in your smile lurk love and mischief, both,
True harbingers of joys unborn, unspent.
Smile on, eye, laugh, and I shall not be wroth,
But drink a cup with you and not repent.
Smile on and on, and purse your petal-lips,
In that strange pout, which no one yet could tell;
And while you smile, my giddy spirit dips.
Into some deep and dark, yet glorious Hell,
And so like life — a cheater and a fraud —
I care not. Smile in spite of sin and God.
Smile on. Smile on, what ever you may hide
Behind that wierd wild beauty of your eyes
Smile on. Oh, smile, be merciful and kind
Though your eternal smile spell thousand lies.
Smile on and let the fires of your face
Burn up my heart, scorch life’s last tender grace.
J. P. PÁLSSON.