The Icelandic connection - 01.03.2018, Síða 29

Vol. 70# I
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
27
(transl.from Embassy of Washington article)
In the delightful poem entitled Minni
Dakota- Byggdar, (In honour of the
Dakota County) which was considered
inappropriate for Icelandic patriots or
young people - he compares the old
country with the new and says:
Do vanti Joig fossana, firdina og margt
sem fjallkonan gat okkur veitt,
Pa baetir upp akranna skinandi skart
og skoglendid voldugt og breitt.
Pu sveltir ei born Jain, sveitin min kter,
og solskinid lastur Jaeim fait;
allt sem jaau Jaarfnast i gordunum grasr,
og Gud hefur blessad ]oad allt.
(Editor’s note: Poem states that although there
are no waterfalls and mountains in Dakota
there is sunshine and rich farm fields but
the old country, there is poverty and hunger.
None-the-less, God blesses all.)
In poems he calls Brot (Pieces) that I
never heard recited, he addresses Iceland
‘that proud Mountain-Queen’. In spite
of everything, he wants to show her his
respect, but the tone is bitter:
Pad eg lengi muna ma, -
mig ]du burtu flaemdir
mi'num bernskuarum a,
utlegd sekan dasmdir.
Blaerinn vasri annar a
astarkvaedum mi'num,
mig ef sett ]au hefdir hja
hirdskaldunum Jainum.
(Editor's note: Here he describes how, in spite
of his love for his mother country, she has
forced him to move away)
Kainn in his time and place
Kainn was well known on both sides of
the Atlantic. There is no debate about that.
In both places people enjoyed poetry about
brennivin, women and ministers, although
his ‘Western Icelandic’ drew more laughs
in the West than in Iceland. One sign of his
popularity in Iceland around the middle of
the last century might be the number of
my contemporaries who can recite one of
his poems when the occasion arises. When
I was researching the themes of his poetry,
I amused myself by making note of how
many verses in the 1945 collection I had
learned as a youngster. I counted about
forty. Might that be a sign of how much
enjoyment people got from his work?
Once did, but no longer do - or
do they?
The ways people relax and enjoy
themselves and what they think about is
very different in 2017 than it was in 1891,
when Sigurbjorg, the daughter of Stefan
Gunnarsson from Myrar in Skriddal, was
engaged to Bjorn Bjarnason, the nephew
of Kristjan Jonsson, the verser. I can well
imagine that there are now many more
people in Iceland than in the West who
can enjoy the ‘West-Icelandic’ humour in
Kainn’s poetry. And I can also well imagine
that young people very seldom quote
Kainn’s verses on their cell phones.
Those who enjoy Kainn’s poetry these
days are probably old artifacts like myself,
who remember little other than what they
learned in their youth, or else literature
lovers or researchers. Yes, times and styles
change. People are even beginning to
enjoy ‘piano-blubbering’ and ‘symphony-
squawk’.
Playing With Language [Toga 1
Tungu: to play with your language tongue;
Playing with words]
Then there is one aspect of Kainn’s
poetry that I am sure knowledgeable,
literate people may study and enjoy. This
is the way he plays with words, not his
just use of ‘West-Icelandic’ but his talent
for using words humorously. There are not