Brodsky in Iceland

The Nordic Voices blog has posted a previously unpublished poem by Joseph Brodsky, and a memoir of the poet's visit to Iceland in 1978.

Brodsky in Iceland

Joseph Brodsky with the Icelandic poet Jóhann Hjálmarsson (left) and yours truly in the garden of Jóhann's home in Reykjavík, June 1978. The tree in the photo was the tallest in Iceland at that time. (Morgunblaðið, 23 October 1987).

Iceland: a chillier Dubai

In an interview for the Sunday Times, Dorrit Moussaieff, the wife of Iceland's President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, describes her view of Iceland's future. Excerpt:

Indeed, she’s hoping to turn the country into a sort of deluxe haven where cosseted clients from around the world can come and pick up treats: a chillier version of Dubai, with fish and geysers instead of sand. Moussaieff has stumbled upon a disused airbase in Iceland and hopes to transform it into a store for art collections that people will then be able to visit. She has teamed up with her great friend the art collector and heiress Francesca von Habsburg for the scheme.

Red-Green coalition in Iceland

It looks as though Iceland's troubles may be about to take a turn for the worse: in the aftermath of the resignation of the country's prime minister and government yesterday, a minority Red-Green coalition is in the process of being formed, and is likely to govern after the elections scheduled for May. The FT has some comment here.

Sjón - 3 poems

[the translations are my own]

A glass of water

I held
the glass and
looked into it.
The human eye
that lay on the bottom
looked at me
accusingly.

And I
who only asked for water.

(from Madonna [1979])

the hungry man’s astronomy

insatiable moons
follow him home
both by day and by night

they hover above the rooftops
sneaking a quick snack

winter-summer-spring-and-fall

their favourite food
pizza with iceland moss
and ice cream

they are what they eat

(from myrkar fígúrur [1998])

lithograph

marie curie and edvard munch lived in paris at around the same time

munch was interested in new discoveries and went to visit
the curies’ research laboratory on rue lhomond in the 5me arrondissement

marie was alone there and showed the painter how she and pierre
were wrestling with radium, and then gave him afternoon tea

in the lithograph munch sent her as a thank you present
the woman scientist sits among the equipment with her hand under her cheek

the angle of vision is oblique and in the bottom right hand corner you can see
the back of pierre’s neck as he sits at his desk writing in a book

marie curie looks into the light and has the same hairstyle as
edvard munch’s sister in the painting “death in the sickroom”

the picture has been lost – to dream it foretells the dreamer’s death

(from söngur steinsafnarans [2007])

See also in this blog: Sjón - 2 poems

an icelandic economist in soho

Sjón - 2 poems

Two poems by the contemporary Icelandic poet Sjón (Sigurjón Sigurðsson), in my translation:

the stone collector’s song

I remember the thirst and the darkness
I remember one-way streets
I remember closed alleys
and you

you pointed to a cellar door
there used to be a pub there
which we visited
a lot

here it is you said comfortingly
your stone collection
it isn’t
lost

on the shelves behind the bar
waits the iceland spar
all my
stones

sulphur – pyrite – opal
and jasper – dear friends!
none of you have I
forgotten

and up there on the ceiling hang
the obsidian sacks
heavy with
anxiety

*

gallstones
that is the poem I sing
as I squat under house-walls
when the winter denies me shelter

family life

after doing the washing-up the man stumbles
across a reindeer
that is lying under the coffee table
ruminating

it notices him
and rears up in fright

starts running out of the parlour
along the passage
where it jumps
over a pair of sandals
and a woman’s shoe.

he chases it into the bedroom

the beast creeps
under
the double bed

he gets down on all fours
watches it
join the herd

it grunts
elegantly

and the man disappears

(from söngur steinasafnarans [2007])

See also in this blog: an icelandic economist in soho

an icelandic economist in soho

By Sjón

(my tr.)

orange tents
sprout up
around the pub

and he wonders
if the flies that seek  his beer
are real

*

the world’s economy is governed by a giant baby
that extends between the oceans

when it cries the shares fall one after the other

like snow buntings
over snow
in a snowy winter
like snow buntings
over a snowy winter
on snow
like snow
over snow buntings
in a snowy winter
like snow
over a snowy winter
on snow buntings
like a snowy winter
over snow buntings
on snow
like a snowy winter
over snow
on snow buntings

and the change in his pockets grows lighter

*

the gust of wind
that crosses the square
and is meant for him alone

it opens the tent flaps
so that the listening device
comes into view

and he wonders
if the girl at the cash desk
isn’t  a bit mechanical in her movements

More on Iceland

Actions and statements from around the world about the crisis in Iceland continue to be characterized by excessive rhetoric and harshness. The Danish economic analyst Carsten Valgreen has said that Iceland will soon be "the Zimbabwe of the North Atlantic", presumably referring to Iceland's economic situation, and not to its excellent human rights record. Meanwhile, a tour of Japan by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra has been cancelled by the Japanese organizers, apparently on the grounds that they fear not enough Japanese concertgoers will attend the performances.

Iceland talks in Moscow

Icelandic officials are now in Moscow to discuss what has been publicized as a 4 billion euro loan. Yet Reuters and Icelandic press sources say that no government ministers are in the Icelandic delegation.

Iceland awash

From The Independent, February 10 2005:

The favourite theory doing the rounds is that Reykjavik is awash with Russian mafia money. Iceland, they reason, is precisely halfway between Moscow and New York, making it the perfect stop-off point for a Russian oligarch to launder the odd billion roubles. Plus, wasn't the Russian connection cemented by presidents Reagan and Gorbachev's choice of Reykjavik as their setting to end the Cold War?

Icelanders, naturally, assert that the Russian money notion is nonsense. But everyone knows where it comes from. Three years ago, a trio of Icelanders led by Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson sold a Russian brewing business he built from scratch from a disused Pepsi plant to Heineken for more than pounds 200m. Mr Bjorgolfsson, who, like most of his peers is in his late 30s, used his spoils to acquire most of Landsbanki through his company, Samson Global Holdings. He also has a 30 per cent stake in Actavis, the pharmaceuticals company set to float on the London Stock Exchange this year. Hence the theory that Icelandic companies are awash with Russian money.

Going too far

The present dispute between the UK and Iceland is turning into a melodrama in which some unwise statements and actions are being made on several sides. But while it's easy to crack witticisms about a "New Cod War", the implications of what is currently being said, done and discovered in connection with this falling-out are drastic enough.

Not that all of the statements are unwise. At a press conference in Reykjavík today, Iceland's prime minister Haarde made the perfectly reasonable remark that "Gordon Brown, Britain's prime minister, went much too far in his comments about Iceland yesterday."

Agreed: it's going too far when the government of one country more or less accuses the friendly government of another of economic terrorism.

But it's also going too far when the local governments of one country - even if it was due to their own negligence - are to all intents and purposes held to ransom by the failing economic system of another. And it's definitely going too far when a country that's a member of NATO announces that it intends to make an extraordinary financial arrangement with Russia that could, if certain conditions were met, conceivably overturn the whole of the strategic balance in Europe and the Western Atlantic.

It's probably going too far even to publicize the dispute at all, as the headlines continue to do.