The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1964, Page 25

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
23
“For some time now, a prisoner I stay
Like some dark thief in exile hid
away. . . .
“I will transport myself to that far time
When Rome obscene, with Nero in
his prime,
In filthy orgies neared its sorry end
And a new day already did ascend. . . .
“And fiery-tongued* apostles wandered
forth
From land to land, :to east, west, south
and north.”
* (Translators’ note: Reference to the
Holy Spirit, who upon the first Pente-
cost descended upon the Apostles in
the form of fiery tongues.)
The poet’s thoughts are transferred
to Bethlehem:
“That was the time when over
Bethlehem
A star was rising like a diadem,
The Word of holy Truth and Love
arisen.”
And then:
“Head down, upon a cross, Saint Peter
died;
He like his Lord before, hung
crucified.
The Neophytes to Syracuse* were
taken
In chains to the grim dungeons,
God-forsaken,
Dark, subterranean. And there your
son
Alcides,* your own child, your
dearest one,
Is rotting now in slavery and chains.
For you, O suffering one, no news
remains
Of where he languishes and pines
away!
You seek him in Siberia,** nay,
pardon,
1 should say Scythia, that barren
garden.”
The destruction:
“O ruthless Nero! From those darkened
regions
God’s sudden, righteous judgment
will surprise you.”
and
“From every clime there’ll answer to
the call
The holy martyrs, children,
one and all,
Of sacred liberty.”
But there is Christian forgiveness:
“And round your dirty deathbed as
you die
They will appear in chains and ....
will forgive you.”
Rome, that is Czarist Russia (and
the Ukrainian oppressor) suffers a
slow death:
“To Rome the galley came. A week
passed iby . . . .
(* purely apocryphal.)
(** An intentional slip of the tongue
to help the reader.)