Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.05.2011, Page 51

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GEST BER AÐ GARÐI
and two more again in the 1980’s, by Þorsteinn frá Hamri (a leading contemporary
poet) and Gunnar Gunnlaugsson. A seventh translation, by Iceland’s most prom-
inent literary translator of the second half of the 20th Century, Helgi Hálfdanarson
(1911-2009), stems from the mid-20th Century but is published for the first time in
the present issue of Ritið. It was found among his posthumous papers and is given
special attention in this article.
Leaning on an Icelandic metric tradition, all seven Icelandic translators opt for
an eleven-line stanza for the original’s six lines. Given this change in form, however,
the Icelandic versions stay close to the rhyme pattern and rhythmic structure of
the original (two lines in Icelandic corresponding to the octameter of Poe’s longer
line). Following an analysis of the poem’s rhyme pattern and emotive structure, the
article discusses variations in rhyme and repetition, diction and discourse, in the
different translations, pointing out how certain aspects get enhanced (such as the
horror element in Skuggi’s translation), while others become less pronounced. The
most striking example of the latter is the lack of lead-rhyme in Helgi Hálfdanarson’s
translation (cf. the ore-rhyme which is threaded through Poe’s whole poem, ampli-
fying the keyword “nevermore”). But by sacrificing the lead-rhyme, supposedly the
poem’s key sign of formal continuity, Hálfdanarson in fact creates space for himself
to pursue other thematic, figurative and formal features that engage and strengthen
the structural continuity of the poem.

Keywords: „The Raven“ by Edgar Allan Poe in Icelandic; translation and literary
history; translation of verse forms, comparative analysis.