The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1963, Blaðsíða 47

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
45
ONWARD
by JON OLAFSSON
My Landsmen, you carp of oppression and pain
Yet yourselves, you oppress you most sadly:—
That you’re battling slavery; that all is in vain —
Yet but half-fit yourselves, hence fare badly.
Onr inherited bane, which to leave us seems loth, —
Has for centuries stood in our way:
It is folly and ignorance, superstition and sloth!
It imprisons our souls in its sway!
This oppression’s the harshest! Let us throw a new cast
And refresh us our spirit to dare.
Let us use our last breath in a mighty new blast!
So that nothing again can ensnare.
You think that -the Dane would deny us all use,
—He himself has perphaps the same thought, —
You’re deceiving yourselves! It’s a lying excuse,
And twaddle can ne’er win us aught!
When our Icelandic merchantmen roam the trade lanes,
And we use our own skills to equip,
We shall laugh at oppression! — not even the Danes
Could hinder us manning our ship!
But it is to begin! Then in due time the breeze
Will bulge sail our courses to hold
And we at least trace back our lineage with ease
To our Sea-Kings in Sagas of old.
We shall not worry though we wet a hold,
Though we now and again ship a sea,
To keep to the course, and in danger be bold,
With no looking back! That’s the key!
Then soon it shall happen that forth comes the time
That we alone rule in this land, —
When each spirit is free, then abilities climb,
Only then have we builded to stand.
And -then we shall find as comes on our new age
This without any doubt I proclaim,
That’s why all this fighting is on at this stage,
Although really it is — but a game.
Translated by Kristjan J. Austmann