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Not one of the 18 entries in this year’s children’s book competition in Iceland was worthy of consideration, according to this article in RÚV. The award has been handed out every year since 1986, except for 1999 and 2005, when a similar situation arose and no prize was given. The deadline for next year’s competition is the beginning of February 2014, and authors are encouraged to prepare from now 🙂
Engin bók nógu góð – No Book Good Enough
Let’s look at the first paragraph:
“Dómnefnd Íslensku barnabókaverðlaunanna hefur rýnt vel í þau átján handrit sem bárust í samkeppnina að þessu sinni en þótti ekkert þeirra henta sem verðlaunasaga og því verða verðlaunin ekki veitt í ár. Þessi staða hefur tvisvar áður komið upp.”
“The selection committee for the Icelandic Children’s Book Award has carefully reviewed the 18 manuscripts that were entered into the competition this time, but found none of them worthy of the award, and so it will not be given out this year. This situation has arisen twice previously”
I don’t think I’d ever come across the first verb:
| að rýna – to review, scrutinize | ||
|---|---|---|
| present | past | |
| ég | rýni | rýndi |
| þú | rýnir | rýndir |
| það | rýni | rýndi |
| við | rýnum | rýndum |
| þið | rýnið | rýnduð |
| þau | rýna | rýndu |
It seems to occur a lot with the preposition í, with the meaning of review:
Hann rýndi í bók. – He pored over a book.
Gagnrýnandi rýndi í myndina. – The critic reviewed the movie.
Hún rýndi í plötu. – She reviewed a record (music).
The verb að veita means to give in the sense of award, grant, hand over, etc:
| að veita – to grant, give, offer | ||
|---|---|---|
| present | past | |
| ég | veiti | veitti |
| þú | veitir | veittir |
| það | veiti | veitti |
| við | veitum | veittum |
| þið | veitið | veittuð |
| þau | veita | veittu |
Verðlaunin verða ekki veitt í ár. – The award will not be given this year.
Bankinn veitti honum lán. – The bank gave him a loan.
Eftirlitsmyndavélar eru víða án þess að við veitum þeim athygli. – Security cameras are everywhere without us noticing them.
At the end of the paragraph you see the word for twice – tvisvar. There is also a separate word for three times (thrice) – þrisvar. Otherwise you can use the word sinn in the dative (along with the number) – einu sinni, fjórum sinnum, fimm sinnum, etc.
The second paragraph has several interesting expressions, such as
að undanskildum árunum 1999 og 2005 – except for the years 1999 and 2005
This is from the verb undanskilja:
| að undanskilja – to except, exclude | ||
|---|---|---|
| present | past | |
| ég | undanskil | undanskildi |
| þú | undanskilur | undanskildir |
| það | undanskilur | undanskildi |
| við | undanskiljum | undanskildum |
| þið | undanskilið | undanskilduð |
| þau | undanskilja | undanskildu |
Specifically in the text it is the past participle that is used, which is treated as an adjective.
þegar sama var upp á teningnum og nú is an expression meaning when the same thing happened, or the same outcome occurred. It features the word teningar – dice. So there’s the image of a throw of the dice, having the same result come up.
skrifa bak við eyrað means to take note of something, so in the sentence:
“Næsti skilafrestur í samkeppnina verður í byrjun febrúar 2014 og eru allir þeir sem luma á handriti eða hugmynd að barnabók hvattir til að skrifa þá dagsetningu á bak við eyrað og nýta tímann vel.”
“The deadline for the next competition is at the beginning of February 2014, and all those with a manuscript or an idea for a children’s book tucked away somewhere are encouraged to make a note of that date and use the time well.”
dóm·nefnd f (-ar,-ir) panel of judges, committee sam·keppni f indecl competition verð·laun n pl prize, award skilafrestur deadline þyk/ja v (þótti,þótt) be regarded, considered at·hygli f indecl attention, alertness tening/ur m (-s,-ar) cube, die nýt/a v (acc) (-ti,-t) utilize hvetja v (acc) (hvatti,hvatt) encourage, urge
It’s amazing how such a short text can have so many interesting words and phrases 🙂