The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1974, Side 35

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
33
THE HERITAGE
Translated by Vilhjalmur Stefansson
It may be that yours is a powerful land,
It may be your heart swells with pride where you stand
When her armies come home from afar
With the man who has fought for his home while his strength
Gould support him, but now has been conquered at length
Bound fast to our triumphal car.
Your fatherland’s glory illumines the halls
When, loaded with fetters, the prissoner falls
On the threshold. Your triumph is sweet,
For you feel, at the banquet the gloom of his soul
Will brighten the shimmer of wine in the bowl
And lighten the tripping of feet.
But for you through who.se heart surges blood from the veins
Of a people downtrodden and loaded with chains,
A nation that all men despise,
The trial is bitter when Memory’s hand
Leads your soul through the barren and desolate land
And naught but shame meets your eyes.
When the chains that he bore made the muscles to swell,
And the sting of the lash brought the blood drops that fell
Where the father that cherished you stood,
The anguish that quivered and shot through his frame
Brought neither a cry nor a word; but the shame
Now simmers and burns in your blood.