The Icelandic connection - 01.03.2018, Blaðsíða 21

Vol. 70# I
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
19
people memorized his verses and recited
them at every opportunity. Of course, it is
not a particularly scientific endeavour to
identify and list themes and count up the
poems and verses in which these themes
appear. Firstly, there can be more than one
central theme in just one little verse, let
alone a whole poem, and secondly, readers
may not all agree on what the central theme
actually is. Nevertheless, I shall endeavor
to identify those themes that I deem to be
particularly his.
BJOR
f>u modurtungan maera,
sem mer er hjartakaer!
Eg man j>ad maski betur
en margt sem skedi i gter,
hid fyrsta af ollum ordum
er ord eg mynda for,
var ord, sem aldrei gleymi,
en ordid jrad var: Bjor.
Svo Audi eg fedra grundu,
mer fannst jaar allt of purrt;
ad leita fjar og frama,
eg fullur sigldi burt.
Af hafi hingad komnum
mer heimur birtist nyr,
jra laerdi eg ord i ensku,
en ordid jrad var “Beer”.
Og fyrr en fjandann varir,
ef fullur sting eg af,
og dreg a kalda djupid,
i daudans kyrrahaf -
Og hvad, sem heist ad drekka
i heljarsolum finn,
er bjorkut best ad grafa
a bautasteininn minn.
Gamli Bakkus
It is likely no surprise to anyone that
alcohol is a frequent theme in Kainn’s
poetry. According to my tally, there are no
less than sixty poems and verses about hard
liquor or beer in the 1945 publication of his
collected poetry. And I must tell you that
these poems are not preaching temperance
or abstinence. I don’t know, for instance,
how those who supported prohibition and
the banning of beer sales felt about the
following ‘Beer’ poem:
bjor
You extol this mother tongue
that my heart holds so dear!
More than much of yesterday,
this in my memory clear
Is the first of any words I formed,
no other word before,
This word I never will forget:
this word was “Bjor”.
And so I left my father’s land,
too dry it was for me,
To seek my fame and fortune,
I set sail upon the sea.
A world completely new to me
is what I have found here,
Then an English word I learned:
this word was “Beer”.
Before the devil notices
as drunk, I slip away
Down to the chilly depths
of death’s dark, quiet bay,
Again there in the halls of hell
I’ll find my favourite drink;
A beer keg would suit best upon
my gravestone, I should think.
(transl Ingrid Roed)
It would be ridiculously foolish for me distinguish his poetry. One is the promise of
to recite here all those poems and verses alcohol, as in the works of the French poet,
of Kainn’s that relate to alcohol so I won’t Charles Baudelaire, who composed that
do that. But there are two things that great poem: ENIVREZ-VOUS, which Jon