The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1968, Page 21

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
19
One could draw a general conclusion
that the faith, principle, or theory
which enables the human being to
develop a high degree of zeal and a
willingness to lay down life itself,
creates the vision of a pinnacle to be
reached: World Peace. That pinnacle
may be far off but it is seen by all in
the distant blue. On the travel up to
that pinnacle all human beings could
become and be brothers.
A third rule is laid down by Stephan
G. Stephansson, the Iceland-Canada
poet. He became universal, and of
all times, when he laid down the fol-
lowing exhortation to humanity:
AS hugsa ekki i arum en oldum,
aS alheimta ei daglaun aS kvoldum,
)rvl svo lengist mannstefin mest.
Think not in years but in ages,
Claim not at once but in stages,
Only then life on earth will endure.
The poet points out how destructive
it is if a farmer “mines” his land,
takes all it can yield, does not fertilize,
re-sow or replenish for those who suc-
ceed him. When that course is taken
the time will come when no-
thing is left but wasteland. From
this inevitable destruction the poet
generalizes. If people (and nations)
reach out for all they can encompass,
and make no provision for improve-
ment or for those who .succeed them,
an end is inevitable. Man must build
not only for the present and himself
but for others and for the future. Only
then “mannsasfin”, human life on earth
will endure.
The poet closes with this warning:
Jaac5 er ekki oflofuS samticS,
en umbastt og glaSari framti'S,
su verold, er sjaandinn ser.
Not an over-praised present,
A future improved and more
pleasant,
Is the world which the prophet
does see.
(This poem was composed in 1904 when
there was comparative tranquility through-
out the world).
In order to bring the record in
North America up-to-date one needs
but quote from a poem by Paul A.
Sigurdson, a third generation Icelander
in Canada, who teaches school in
Morden, Manitoba.
As might be expected, Paul Sigurd-
son, a polio victim, accepts the philos-
ophy of history as expounded by Arn-
old J. Toynbee, the famous British hi-
storian who regards adversity as a
virtue in the struggle of human exist-
ence. In a chapter entitled The Virtues
of Adversity, Toynbee points out that
there is an optimum of adversity
beyond which it does more evil than
good and claims that in Iceland there
was an optimum of adversity.
The title to the poem is “Weeds”,
and it is an allegory, the attack of
weeds upon cultivated vegetation be-
ing a sustained metaphor, depicting
the struggle that human beings have
to wage to provide for their continued
existence on Earth. The lesson to be
learned in this continuous struggle is
revealed in the following verse:
The weed:
Our stimulation;
Our challenge;
Our point of bearings;
Where life takes two directions
And we leave unity to God.
On earth there are adversities, con-
stant adversities — weeds that retard
growth. To Paul Sigurdson they are
an inspiration. The greater the
struggle, the greater the challenge. On
earth man chooses the direction he