Nordic Branch (X series)

Your souvenirs:

Icelandic horse carving, fleece sleeping bag, hardback

That left me longing for a translation that doesn’t exist

(Exist it might, in fact, in the realm of rare books beyond me.)

Old book Ritsafn, old tee-shirt soft, and old pages shine

Signed by Olaf Sigurdardottir a Hlodum. 

Woman of fairy tales and poems married to a carpenter,

Her property manager. 

You are the man of not words;

My birthday present is the bookcase you are building.

Book and word are English cognates of the Icelandic language,

Word list and word lust. 

The writer and the carpenter are romantic;

Caretaker, I translate into the genitive case signifying possession. 

I learned enough Icelandic;

Now let’s make like old people and read in bed!