Orð og tunga - 26.04.2018, Page 70

Kendra Willson: Splitting the atom 59
(11) Hann hafði passíuhár og dálítið yfirskegg og hefði vel
getað verið atómskáld þess vegna. (Matthías Johannessen
1977–1985:I–II, 107)
[He had Jesus hair and a bit of a moustache and could
easily have been an atom poet for that matter.]
(12) Hann safnaði skeggi eins og atómskáld. Jafnvel þegar
hann rakaði af sér þetta brúsandi atómskegg, litu þeir
hann hornauga fyrir að hafa rakað það af sér. (Geir
Kristjánsson 1961:36)
[He grew a beard like an atom poet. Even when he
shaved off that bushy atom beard, they looked askance
at him for having shaved it off .]
In the compound atómskegg ‘atom beard’, the prefix atóm- is obviously
metonymic for atómskáld.
Some writers play with the atom imagery:
(13) En þó voru í gær ellefu atómskáld að sprengja spóann í
útvarpinu. (Málfríður Einarsdóttir 1978:183)
[But nonetheless yesterday eleven atom poets were
blowing up the whimbrel on the radio.]
Atómljóð ‘atom poem’ is used most often to refer to free verse,
mainly referring to the lack of formal constraints and implying that
composing such poetry is less difficult that composing in traditional
forms. In short story “Gatan í rigningunni” [The street in the rain] by
Ásta Sigurðardóttir (a modernist writer in prose active around the
same time), the protagonist is asked:
(14) Vi-viltu yrkja eftirmæli um hana – má vera atómljóð
(Ásta Sigurðardóttir 1985:24)
[Wi-will you compose a memorial verse for her - it can
be an atom poem]
The derogatory terms atómbull ‘atom bull’ and atómþvagl ‘atom chat-
ter’, are intended synonyms for atómljóð.
In informal popular verse tradition, some versifi ers use the title
“Atómljóð” ironically for poems with rhyme and structural allitera-
tion which assert the poets’ preference for traditional forms. The In-
ternet hosts several such anti-atom poems, rhymed and alliterative
light verse, which in both their form and content protest “free verse”
(e.g. Konráð J. Brynjarsson, Þórhallur Hróðmarsson). These satires
show obvious contempt or resentment for abstruse “highbrow” cul-
tunga_20.indb 59 12.4.2018 11:50:38