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Nordic Branch (X series)

Submitted by jrlewis on Sat, 01/26/2013 - 3:43pm

Your souvenirs:

Icelandic horse carving, fleece sleeping bag, hardback

Which left me longing for a translation that doesn’t exist;

What to do with a text I can’t read?

Old book Ritsafn, old tee-shirt soft,

The paper shines; signed by Fra Sigurdardottir a Hlodum.

She was a writer of fairy tales and poems married to a carpenter,

Ever after farmers.

We are the writer and the carpenter;

My caretaker, I shall translate into the genitive case romantic.

Book and word are English cognates of the Icelandic language,

Word list and word lust.

I learned enough Icelandic;

Now let us make like old people and read in bed!

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Submitted by jrlewis on Wed, 01/30/2013 - 9:35am.

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!