The Icelandic connection - 01.09.2010, Síða 25

Vol. 63 #Z
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
75
We cannot underestimate or overstate
the importance that language has and will
always play in the creation and the read-
ing of Guttormur J. Guttormsson’s works.
Every single piece he wrote, he wrote in
Icelandic, a language spoken by only a
very few, relatively speaking that is. It is
as though he locked his poetry up in its
own language, even at a time when he
would have sensed that the use of
Icelandic was unfortunately on the wane.
But that is another matter altogether.
What is important for us is that a small
number of gifted translators have taken
on the lofty task of steering Guttormur’s
Icelandic works into English; one of them
being George Pattern, the translator of
“Rockefeller. ”
So to begin, we have to ask ourselves:
what is translation? What is going on
during the process of translating a piece
of literature from one language, that is,
from one set of abstract symbols, into
another? Specifically, what is this seem-
ing “middle ground” in the field of trans-
lation? It is here, in the theoretical space
between two languages where we find
what is essential. According to Walter
Benjamin, in his piece entitled “The Task
of the Translator” (1969), this area of
conversion could be viewed as the
suprahistorical point of origin of all lan-
guages. Basically, it is the domain of
pure language, the “language of truth, the
tensionless and even silent depository of
the ultimate truth which all thought
strives for” (p. 77), but that not one lan-
guage can adequately realize (p. 74). It is
a rather difficult concept to speculate
upon, and it is impossible to express the
nature of this field of truth using lan-
guage. One can only approximate oneself
to it. Translation is one way of actually
accessing this hitherto inaccessible realm
of truth. A translator like George Pattern
would have to pull Guttormur’s literary
intentions in Icelandic, through that area
of the inexpressible word, into an approx-
imate effect in English. Walter Benjamin
refers to this intended effect as the “echo
of the original” (p. 76). Which brings us
nicely to the second aspect of this
chimerical piece: Guttormur’s intended
effect, to which is in a word ‘satire.’
Just as language is a wholly inade-
quate means of expression, so too is
humanity an inadequate species of life.
We are notoriously ridiculous, shamefully
scandalous, not to mention weak and
mortal. Our brief lives are spent wrapped
up in the thousand natural shocks our
flesh is heir to and satire is the critical
uncovering of these, our most foolish
Consulate of
Iceland
Gordon J. Reykdal
Honorary Consul
17631 - 103 Avenue, Edmonton,
Alberta T5S 1N8 CANADA
Tel.: (780] 408-5118
Cell: (780) 497-1480
Fax: (780) 443-2653
E-mail: gord@csfinancial.ca