The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2000, Side 44

Vol. 55 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
342
Speech by “K.N.” Kristjan Niels Julius
Delivered at a dinner in the poet's honour at the Good Templar
Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba on May 30, 1935
Translated by Ninna Bjarnason Campbell
Friends and well wishes all,
upon you now I call;
l am still in good health,
accumulating some wealth
material goods, not at all,
have ever kept me in thrall.
Just give me some bread to eat
some wine, -—and unhappiness I defeat.
I do not know exactly why I am here, an
old farmhand of Uncle Sam for a good many
years, except perhaps the reason being, that he
"kidnapped" me from Miss Canada, when I
was in my prime, and boarded me with his
daughters, who were used to men of good
breeding and descendants of old Vikings. But
now the story seems to repeat itself. What
happened to me is what happened to orvar-
oddur. I long to see the prairies one more time
before I depart from this world, for now the
sun is setting on the sea, as the poet says, and
no one knows who is next. I know better than
any of you that this is not the right place for
me. I should be in a museum, just like any
other mummy, there I could have found
myself on the right shelf of life, even though
it be late. It is evident to me, that the sins of
the fathers are visited on the children of the
third and fourth generation. That I should be
here to bother you this evening, I who am so
behind my times, that I can only see the youth
through binoculars, and am the only one still
living if I can use that expression, of those,
who first stepped foot on the stage of this old
society hall sixty years ago to try to entertain
our unenlightened masses with my nonsensi-
cal poetry. That was long before the time of
the great poets—of course I mean, Einar
Hjorleifsson, Jon Olafsson and Gestur
Palsson. But good and well, it can not be
denied, that things were lively, as they used to
say, and men were satisfied with little. But
now the dream has changed, which is natural
and desirable. A few years ago I wrote this
commemorative poem about K.N. as a poet:
"While K.N. lived and composed verses
with talent and excellence
gladdened the Icelandic women with each
joke,
how it was said and how the emphasis on
the rhyme was placed.
But then there was less education than
now,
and many lived on only hope and faith
and it was said of that venerable man
that no one could tell lies better than he."
But now this has all changed, each and
every teenager has surpassed me, and that is
one of these things that one may thank educa-
tion for, as well as many other things.
The statement, "Truth is the best policy,"
has often been used in speeches and writings.
Unfortunately some friends of mine have
become so poetically inclined these days, that
they have completely abandoned the golden
rule, to tell only the truth, and everyone knows
what the after effects are. They have showered
me with foolish flattery, that Steingrimur
Thorsteinsson's verse has never been truer,
though it has often been used, and the result of
that is this: That people have naively come
here this evening in hopes of hearing some-
thing that they would get enjoyment from, but
have not considered that no one pours new
wine into an old skin (container) and have not
realized that having listened to me for more or
less fifty years, that there would not be much
new flavour to that which I would have to say.
It has been proven to me, and many others, that
one is not a prophet in one's own country. It is
now old Iceland that has formed the opinion
that it has to uphold K.N., the reason being nat-
urally that Iceland is one hundred years behind