The Icelandic connection - 01.09.2010, Síða 27

Vol. 63 #2
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
77
the shortcomings of the human race. It
begins with St. Petur speaking to
Rockefeller on how he may not even
qualify for access to Hell due to his
excessive greed on earth:
“Your greed is the cause and
greatest sin,
So perhaps he will not take you
in.
The fire now is glowing red.
For lack of oil, it’s almost dead.
If cheaper oil cannot be found,
then Hell will have to be closed
down.”
“Then I intend to wait out here,
- answered John D. Rockefeller,
“keeping oil prices very dear
until every last drop has burned.
The Devil, in this way, I’ll
squeeze
for then to me he’ll have to
turn.
I’ll take his name, that’s no
concern,
then light the fire below
afresh
because in oil I have excess”2
(trans. George Pattern)
Now comes the tricky part, trying to
reassemble this chimera of a piece in an
attempt to make some sense of its nature.
What we have, when we combine its sep-
arate qualities: translation and satire or
rather translation of a satire, is an utterly
truth seeking piece of literature. The very
process of translation is a deeply pro-
found search for abstracted meaning. By
diving into the original text, published
1920, translator George Pattern had to
have traveled briefly through the lan-
guage of truth in order to move the satiric
meaning of the poem from Icelandic into
English. When you have a translation
such as this one, where the effect is
poignantly navigated into the second lan-
guage, perhaps we get a sense that we
have approached truth itself, the truth that
lies beneath all languages.
The fact that “Rockefeller” is a satire
is the other way in which this poem seeks
the truth. The truth is that John D.
Rockefeller held a monopoly in the oil
and gas industry in the late nineteenth to
early twentieth centuries. The sheer cal-
lousness and abuse of power it takes to
sustain monopoly is the sorry truth too
oppressive to even want to consider.
Satire takes the oppressive truths and
makes them bearable and lighthearted and
thereby exposes the truth itself through a
twisted use of language.
WORKS CITED
Benjamin, Walter. “The Task of the
Translator. ” Illuminations: Essays and
Reflections. Ed. Hannah Arendt.
Schocken Books, 1969. 69-82.
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of
Criticism. New Jersey: Princeton
University Press. 1957.
Guttormsson, Guttormur J.
“Rockefeller” Aurora. Trans. George
Pattern. Ed. Heather Alda Ireland. North
Vancouver: Contact Printing, 1993. 96-
99.
2 “Og her ab kenna allt bab er/ svo ovist hann taki moti \)evt Ab ollum ltkum er nu Raubur/ af oh'u-
leysi nEerri daubur./ Ef olfa hvergi odyr fsest,/ ba upp mun Helviti verba laest.”/ “ba astla’ eg ab bfba titi her,”/
- anzabi John D. Rockfeller, - / “og halda oltu f hau verbi,/ unz hver einn neisti brotinn er,/ ab fjandanum a
bann hatt eg herbi,/ ab hann ma til ab luta mer./ Og nafnib hans mer fullvel fer./ Eg kveiki upp eld bar nebra
ab nyju,/ bvt nog hef eg af steinolfu.” (Guttormur J. Guttormsson: 1920)