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POEM #1
 

In Iceland


If there are wild men,
they love gently.

They wash their bodies
in streams we drink
from, and we do not
notice.

They hunt with the skill
of a willow moving to
the wind---one egg, one fowl,
one fish a day, and the sweet root
of angelica, which even
the clumsy may stalk.

If there are wild men,
you will know it
only by the snapped bleat
of a ewe some dawn,
or a bottle of good Polish
vodka gone from your tent.

--
Howard McCord

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Á Íslandi
   
   
Ef hér eru útilegumenn
elska þeir blíðlega.
   
Þeir baða sig í lækjum
sem við drekkum úr
án þess að verða
þeirra vör.
   
Þeir veiða eins og
víðir sem bærist
í vindi – eitt egg, einn fugl,
einn fisk á dag, og sæta
hvannarót, sem jafnvel
klaufar gætu laumast að.
   
Ef hér eru útilegumenn
verðum við þeirra
einungis vör í dögun
ef snöggþagnar jarm í sauði
eða ef flaska af fínu, pólsku
vodka er horfin úr tjaldinu.

--
translation of this poem
into Icelandic by
Árni Ibsen
Stekkjarkinn 19,
220 Hafnarfjördur,
Iceland

tel.: +354-555-3991
e-mail: aibsen@centrum.is
http://www.centrum.is/~aibsen/

 

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