The Icelandic connection - 01.03.2018, Side 28

26
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 70 #1
And Raven sitting on a grave down low
Strained his eyes to see it go.
Both arrow and verse again I see,
I’ll never forget this memory:
The verse crumpled at a hallway’s end,
The arrow stuck in the heart of a friend.
(transl. Ingrid Roed)
I don’t want to waste your precious time
reading my text on Kainn’s poetry; instead
I suggest you read his books. They contain
countless examples of‘Western-Icelandic’,
but those verses, for obvious reasons, were
not as popular in rural Iceland as his other
poetry.
Sunshine in Dakota
Naturally, Kainn wrote about more
Consulate of
Iceland
Gordon J. Reykdal
Honorary Consul
10250 - 176 Street
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things than we have considered here. Like
other Western Icelanders, he was a man of
two cultures, his feet firmly planted in the
West but his heart still bound to the old
country, though it had little to offer him.
A great love for this new ‘foster home’ in
Dakota is another characteristic of Kainn’s
poetry.
These poems were not as well received in
Iceland, where, as I mentioned earlier, there
was resentment regarding emigration to the
West. Those Icelandic-North Americans,
mostly of the second or third generation,
who visited the remote areas of Borgarfjord
in my youth were considered odd. They spoke
poor Icelandic with an American accent, and
it was great sport to imitate them. In the case
of the poem Sunshine in Dakota, people
twisted Kainn’s words. I think they took it as
ironic. But it is a lovely poem:
Legar vetur vfkur fra
og vedrid fer ad hlyna, -
{aa er fogur sjon ad sja
solina okkar skfna.
Sunshine in Dakota
When the winter winds have waned
And warm breezes play
What a lovely sight to see
The sunshine on your day.
Then everything that is good is listed: the
wheat, the hay, the pike (a freshwater fish),
the cows, the minister and the unforgettable
brennivfn.
„Alcohol” er htegt ad fa,
heist ef folk er lasid,
]}a er fogur sjon ad sja
solina skina a glasid.
If one can get a bit of gin,
At best by illness hinting
Then ’tis a pretty sight the sun
Upon the bottle glinting.