The Icelandic Canadian - 01.10.1942, Blaðsíða 44

40
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Iceland
By SIG. JUL. JOH.
A fire of hate throughout the earth is bui’ning,
As if King Death dictated all our learning
—As if life’s sunny day to dusk were turning.
The lords of war force every act that passes,
Each edict that would starve the poorer classes.
Like witless sheep, they fool and fleece the masses.
The deadly strife is high and low alarming.
Each land prepared the cause of man is harming;
For, strange to say, our hope lies in disarming.
Our Motherland that lesson now is teaching,
While long-embattled states continue preaching
Of wars, and strive each other overreaching.
Dear land, thou art a haven consecrated,
A country by the god of peace located,
Where human rights, not raids, are emulated.
I know thy sons their swords at one time rattled.
The saga much about their valor prattled.
But now they stand for better things embattled.
The age-old ways of other lands thou breakest;
From errors seen a lesson new thou takest;
From broken rafts a bridge to Heaven makest.
No race or clan on earth our own transcended.
Some innate law our sturdy growth attended.
From kings and slaves our blood was truly blended.
Remember, then, thy destiny and dower,
Thy duty to the world each pregnant hour:
To be a guiding light to peace and power.
God bless thee, Mother, by the outer ocean,
And all thy hundred thousand souls’ devotion
To peace and art and very true emotion.
May countless “Jons” be born to be thy genii,
To bless thee with a halo deep and sheeny
—But never a “Hitler”, never a “Mussolini.”
—Translated by P. B.
Printed by The Viking Press Limited, 853 Sargent Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada