The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1963, Blaðsíða 46

44
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 1963
Book Roviow
MORE ECHOES—translations by
Paul Bjarnason
On the inside cover of this small
108 page book is a sad revelation of
an existing fact. It says “More Echoes
is only obtainable from the author”.
The readership of books of poetry in
Icelandic or of translations of Iceland-
ic poetry is dwindling. All the more
credit to those who in spite of that
handicap continue this unremitting
and unrewarded task of bringing gems
of Icelandic poetry before the Can-
adian and American public. This little
book of translations, succeeding Paul
Bjarnason’s Fleygar and Odes and
Echoes, amply justify the introductory
remarks of the late Vilhjalmur Stefans-
son who says that the three books are
good poetry and “necessarily Iceland-
ic in that Paul Bjarnason is an Ice-
lander”. “But”, he adds, “in the mar-
row of his bones is at once the native
feeling of the original language and or
the English into which it is translated.
For this translator and poet is truly
bi-lingual.”
One of the translations “Gestur”
appears elsewhere in this number. In
that translation, one of the best in
the book, Paul has succeeded in trans-
ferring in truly poetic English the
deep emotion but quiet acceptance of
fate which permeates the original.
The last verse is of a transcendant
quality, equally in the translation as
in the original.
And yet it will be sweet to sing to thee
A song of greeting from a heart
at peace,
Until the final sun has set for me
Beside thy greening hill amid the trees.
And so will be ensanctified the
ground
In songs that to thy memory redound.
But a translator cannot always suc-
ceed if he meticulously clings to
some special feature in the prosody
in one language and seeks to transfer
it into another language. One must
never forget the warning sounded by
Rossetti where he says: “The only true
motive for putting- poetry into a fresh
language must be to endow a fresh na-
tion, as far as possible, with one more
possession of beauty.”
Alliteration is so much a part of
genuine Icelandic poetry, deeply root-
ed through the centuries, that its ab-
sence makes the true Icelander feel
that something essential is missing. It
is as if the housewife had forgotten
to put salt in the porridge or the
bread dough.
On the other hand alliteration can
be beautiful and effective in any lan-
guage. This and the opposite become
clear in Paul Bjarnason’s translations.
The following from Harold and Asta
in Skuggasveinn by Matthias Jochums-
son, show effective alliteration:
Asta: “Our feathered friends, so happy
No fetters can bind.”
Harold “To earth our feet are fastened
If fly would the mind.
But alliteration may make the lan-
guage stilted, requiring invented
words and compounds. The four lines
in Though You Travel Afar by Steph-