The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2010, Page 45

Vol. 63 # I
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
43
Out My Hospital Window
As written of by bard of old,
In russet touch of morning cold,
The thoughts of man, unsung, unfold,
As brightly dawns the day,
Long ago, far away.
The selfsame thoughts I understand,
The onward quest of mortal man,
The torch that’s passed to little man*,
An afi from a distant day,
So long ago and far away.
- Inspired by “By The Hospital Window by Kristjan Palsson, Kvaedabok. “Little man” is
what my afi named me in his poem written below. I didn’t ‘go away’, Afi did. The ‘bard
of old’ I refer to, in line one, is my afi. The second line, in my poem, is inspired by the
first line in his poem, By the Hospital Window.
By the Hospital Window
by Kristjan Palsson
Little man has gone away!
Little man will always stay,
Always stay within my heart
Though today we have to part.
And my fondest hope is this:
May I always stay in his.
- Kvaedabok, Winnipeg: Columbia Press, 1949, page 287.