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Jerking Out of Rotation: Four Icelandic Poets

June 2015

Originally featured in the June 2015 issue of Words Without Borders, this collection showcases a selection of Icelandic poetry, translated and introduced by 2015 PEN/Heim Translation Grant awardee Meg Matich.

Jerking Out of Rotation: Four Icelandic Poets

Given that its language is spoken by fewer than 350,000 people across the world, Iceland manages to publish an astonishing volume of poetry.

Fragments from the Guidebook of the Dead

By Gyrðir Elíasson

There will come a time when / the planet will have had enough

Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich

Mountain Hike

By Gyrðir Elíasson

the blue planet swam in the half-twilight of evening

Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich

Austurvöllur on the Day of the Wake

By Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir

Bums roll around broken-legged in the grass.

Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich

Another Letter to Mister Brown

By Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir

You are the main man, Mister Brown / I am just a victim of circumstance

Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich

Black Sea

By Magnús Sigurðsson

The dark kaiser’s ship, / deep-keeled, cuts the water

Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich

Evolution

By Magnús Sigurðsson

Let me / help you / said the ape.

Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich

Bus Sequence

By Arngunnur Árnadóttir

Each shared bus ride was like a ritual

Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich