{"id":4035,"date":"2014-10-25T20:03:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-25T20:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/islenzka.net\/?p=4035"},"modified":"2020-05-19T15:50:40","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T15:50:40","slug":"ari-josefsson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/ari-josefsson\/","title":{"rendered":"Ari J\u00f3sefsson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5010\" src=\"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/AriJosefsson-small.jpg\" alt=\"AriJosefsson-small\" width=\"150\" height=\"221\"><br \/>\nAlthough I have several books of Icelandic poetry, I&#8217;ve generally shied away from posting anything about it. Poetry is hard in your native language, let alone a foreign one, and even with the &#8220;I&#8217;m just a student&#8221; disclaimer I have no desire to do a disservice to anyone&#8217;s poetry. However I decided to take a stab at it, as I&#8217;ve been reading <a title=\"Nei\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forlagid.is\/vara\/nei-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Nei<\/strong><\/a> by Ari J\u00f3sefsson, an Icelandic poet who tragically died at a very young age. It&#8217;s a great book to add to your collection if you haven&#8217;t already. It is a more modern and prosy type of poetry, but still quite challenging. Below is the blurb about the poet and his book from the publisher link (and the back flap):<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ari J\u00f3sefsson f\u00e6ddist \u00e1 Bl\u00f6ndu\u00f3si 1939. Hann f\u00f3r \u00ed Menntask\u00f3lann \u00e1 Akureyri en h\u00e6tti \u00fear og h\u00e9lt til Reykjav\u00edkur \u00fear sem hann var\u00f0 flj\u00f3tlega \u00e1berandi \u00ed h\u00f3pi ungu sk\u00e1ldanna, gaf me\u00f0al annars \u00fat t\u00edmariti\u00f0 Forspil me\u00f0 Degi Sigur\u00f0arsyni og fleirum \u00e1ri\u00f0 1958. Veturinn 1959-60 dvaldist hann \u00ed Barcelona en las eftir \u00fea\u00f0 utansk\u00f3la vi\u00f0 Menntask\u00f3lann \u00ed Reykjav\u00edk og \u00fatskrifa\u00f0ist \u00fea\u00f0an st\u00fadent 1961. Sama \u00e1r kom \u00fat lj\u00f3\u00f0ab\u00f3kin Nei. Hann stunda\u00f0i n\u00e1m \u00ed \u00edslenskum fr\u00e6\u00f0um \u00ed tv\u00f6 \u00e1r, h\u00e9lt svo til R\u00famen\u00edu til a\u00f0 l\u00e6ra r\u00f3m\u00f6nsk fr\u00e6\u00f0i og var \u00e1 heimlei\u00f0 \u00fea\u00f0an \u00feegar hann f\u00e9ll fyrir bor\u00f0 \u00e1 Gullfossi og drukkna\u00f0i, \u00feann 18. j\u00fan\u00ed 1964.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ari J\u00f3sefsson was born in Bl\u00f6ndu\u00f3s in 1939. He attended school in Akureyri but left to go to Reykjavik, where he quickly distinguished himself among a group of young poets, publishing among other things the journal <em>Forspil<\/em> with Dagur Sigurdarson and others in 1958. He spent the winter of 1959-1960 in Barcelona, continuing his studies for the Reykjavik Junior College and graduating from there in 1961. That same year his book of poetry <em>Nei<\/em> was published. He attended school for Icelandic Studies for two years, then headed to Romania to learn Romanian Studies, and was on his way home from there when he fell overboard from the ship <em>Gullfoss<\/em> and drowned on June 18, 1964.<\/p>\n<p><em>Str\u00ed\u00f0<\/em> is probably one of his best know poems, expressing the contradictions of nationalism and the senselessness of war:<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n.ljod-container {<br \/>\n        overflow:hidden;<br \/>\n\ttext-align: left;<br \/>\n\tmargin: 0px auto;<br \/>\n\tpadding: 0px;<br \/>\n\tborder:0;<br \/>\n\twidth: 550px;<br \/>\n        font-size: .8em;<br \/>\n}<br \/>\n.is-ljod {<br \/>\n\tfloat: left;<br \/>\n\twidth: 275px;<br \/>\n}<br \/>\n.en-ljod {<br \/>\n\tmargin: 0;<br \/>\n\tfloat: left;<br \/>\n\twidth: 275px;<br \/>\n}<br \/>\n<\/style>\n<div class=\"ljod-container\">\n<div class=\"is-ljod\">\n<pre>STR\u00cd\u00d0\n\nUndarlegir eru menn\nsem r\u00e1\u00f0a fyrir \u00fej\u00f3\u00f0um\n\n\u00deeir berjast fyrir f\u00f6\u00f0urland\ne\u00f0a fyrir hugsj\u00f3n\n\nog drepa okkur sem eigum\nekkert f\u00f6\u00f0urland nema j\u00f6r\u00f0ina\neinga hugsj\u00f3n nema l\u00edfi\u00f0.\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"en-ljod\">\n<pre>WAR\n\nStrange are those\nwho rule nations\n\nThey fight for a homeland\nor for an ideal\n\nand kill us who have\nno homeland besides the earth,\nno ideal but life.\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I think <strong>sem r\u00e1\u00f0a fyrir \u00fej\u00f3\u00f0um<\/strong> was the line I was most unsure of, as well as <strong>berjast<\/strong>. There was also a decision about using <em>fatherland<\/em> or <em>homeland<\/em>. Also note the spelling of <strong>einga<\/strong> in the last line.<\/p>\n<pre class=\"smallpre\">str\u00ed\u00f0 n                    war\nundar\u00b7legur adj            peculiar, odd, strange\nr\u00e1\u00f0a fyrir                 rule, lead\nberjast fyrir              advocate for, champion\nhug\u00b7sj\u00f3n f                 ideal\ndrepa                      kill, destroy\nj\u00f6r\u00f0 f                     earth\n<\/pre>\n<p><em>S\u00f3l<\/em> seems to be a love poem, perhaps with the sun representing a person?<\/p>\n<div class=\"ljod-container\">\n<div class=\"is-ljod\">\n<pre>S\u00d3L\n\n\u00c9g elska s\u00f3lina\nog \u00fea\u00f0 eru fj\u00f6ll \u00e1 milli okkar\n\nEn\n\u00feegar \u00e9g sit \u00ed r\u00f6kkrinu\nog horfi \u00ed \u00feetta andlit\n\u00fe\u00e1 ver\u00f0a augun a\u00f0 ofurlitlum geislum\nfr\u00e1 s\u00f3linni sem \u00e9g elska\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"en-ljod\">\n<pre>SUN\n\nI love the sun\nthough there are mountains between us\n\nBut\nwhen I sit in the twilight\nand look into that face\nthe eyes become tiny beams\nfrom the sun that I love\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s amazing how such short lines of text can still present such a challenge to translation, there are so many possibilities for expression.<\/p>\n<pre class=\"smallpre\">s\u00f3l f                           sun\nfjall n                         mountain\nr\u00f6kkur n                        twilight\nand\u00b7lit n                       face\nver\u00f0a a\u00f0 + dat                  to become, turn into\nofur\u00b7l\u00edtill adj                 very small\ngeisli m                        ray, beam\n<\/pre>\n<p>One thing I notice when reading poetry in another language is that I often feel that I understand it, but still cannot express it in my native language. It&#8217;s both fascinating and maddening at the same time. In a way I think a poem can never be truly expressed the way it was intended except in the language it was conceived in, but it&#8217;s still fun to try.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although I have several books of Icelandic poetry, I&#8217;ve generally shied away from posting anything about it. Poetry is hard&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4035"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5155,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4035\/revisions\/5155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}