REYKJAVÍK

Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Waitress in Fall
Selected & translated by Vala Thorodds (Carcanet Press and Partus Press, 2018)

Kristín Ómarsdóttir (b. 1962) is an Icelandic writer of poetry, prose and plays. This selection of her poems in Vala Thorodds’ English translation gives a good overview of Kristín’s poetry. The oldest poems are from her first published book in 1987 and the newest from 2017. Her poetry is playful and caters to fantasy and sometimes the absurd. The images she draws are vivid, perhaps pointing to the fact that Kristín also does visual art and has included her drawings in some of her books. Kristín’s poetry is not squarely located in Reykjavík, or any other place on the map for that matter, but it is an integral part of the city’s literary scene as is the poet herself. As Vala Thorodds points out in the afterword, “Kristín situates us firmly in the domestic realm” and in her hands “everyday scenes and backdrops take on heroic proportions.” Dark fairy tales, myth and folklore often come to mind as well as dreams and fantasy when reading Kristín’s poetry. In the poem “Ingólfstorg – Street Made of Paper” the location is an actual public square in Reykjavík, where an image of everyday life on the square known to all locals is interwoven with a fairytale-like, eerie and somewhat unsettling depiction of the heroine’s journey in a typical Kristín Ómarsdóttir fashion. The poem opens with a playful scene: “Beneath a paved sidewalk lie two giantesses /side by side without touching but the smoke / from their breaths, or a slow fire, is braided together in the air above the chimneys / on the square that boys and girls on / skateboards glide across.” Adventure and tales literally rest beneath the surface but from there we are taken on a somewhat darker and more obscure journey with a girl “dressed in black”. The smoke refers to a sculpture situated on the square, two stone columns emitting steam that again evokes the myth of how Reykjavík – literally meaning smokey bay – got its name.

Kristín Ómarsdóttir is an active member of the Reykjavík literary scene, she often takes part in readings and is one of the organizers of the annual dawn to dusk reading on New Year Day, hosted by the Reykjavík UNESCO City of Literature. She has received numerous awards for her work and been nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize.

Listen to a reading of Kristín Ómarsdóttir’s poem “Icelandic National Poem” in English translation: https://bokmenntaborgin.is/en/nautholsvik-kristin-omarsdottir and the author reading it in Icelandic: https://bokmenntaborgin.is/nautholsvik-kristin-omarsdottir

Gerður Kristný, Drápa
Reykjavík. Mál og menning (an imprint of Forlagid Publishing), 2014
English translation: Drápa. A Reykjavík Murder Mystery. Translated by Rory McTurk. (Todmorden: Arc Publications, 2018). Bilingual edition (Icelandic and English)

Drápa is a narrative poem by Gerður Kristný (b. 1970). It tells the tragic story of a young Reykjavík woman murdered by her husband, based on real events from the 1980’s. Gerður Kristný has said that the book is her ode to this murdered woman and by extension to all women who are victims of violence. “I felt that these women deserved having me write them an ode as poets did for Norse kings in olden times.“, Gerður says, referring to women she wrote about in her former career as a journalist. The poem’s style as well as its title refer to the old Icelandic verse drápa, usually depicting gods, kings and other heroes and their might. The Icelandic word “dráp” however also means killing and thus the title points all at once to the ode sung to this woman, her central position, and to her fate. The book’s opening scene is downtown Reykjavík on a winter night and the poet paints a lucid picture of the city with its colourful roofs and the stark contrast of the dark night that “falls with the whistling sound of an axe”. We are then brought from the above view of the cross on the church tower that “could do nothing to break the darkness louring over the houses” into a Reykjavík house where the murder later takes place. The book is narrated by the devil himself who glides about the city in canine form, and its form is both sharp an unyielding. In many of her works, Gerður has put a focus on violence against women, and here she does so face on.

Gerður Kristný received the Icelandic Literature Prize for her poetry book Blóðhófnir [Bloodhoof] in 2010, the West-Nordic Literature Prize for her children’s book Garðurinn in the same year and has received numerous other awards for her work. She also received the Icelandic Journalism Award for book Myndin af pabba – Saga Thelmu [Picture of Dad – Thelma‘s Story], telling the story of Thelma Ásdísardóttir and her four sister who were abused by their father.

See Gerður Kristný read from Drápa in Icelandic (with English subtitles):

https://bokmenntaborgin.is/en/gerdur-kristny-reykjavik-world-poetry-day-2019

Sigurður Pálsson: Ljóð námu völd
Reykjavík. Forlagið, 1990.

Poetry by Sigurður Pálsson in English: Inside Voices, Outside Light. Translated and introduced by Martin Regal (Todmorden: Arc Publications, 2014) [available in e-book form on Amazon]

Sigurður Pálsson (1948-2017) is one of Iceland’s best-known and beloved poets. He was a central figure in Reykjavík’s literary scene and wrote about the city in many of his poems as well as being a man of the world in his life and work. In his book Ljóð námu völd [Poem Mine Power] from 1990 we see Reykjavík in a number of poems, among them is ‘Morgunstund’ (‘morning-hour’), depicting a mural by artist Gerður Helgadóttir (1928-1975) in the city centre. In the poem, the mural lights up in the magical morning hour and “in fact it is as if the light comes from within; as if the core of the art becomes luminous”. Light and art are prevalent subject matters in Sigurður’s work.  In this book Sigurður also writes about the Reykjavík café Hressó, known for being a hangout of literary types since early 20th century, and a series of short and witty situation poems, giving tasks to people that involve known landmarks in the city. Sigurður was himself a man that walked the city, a flaneur if you like, and his poetry takes the reader on a stroll through the city and way beyond. Ljóð námu völd was nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize and he received the Icelandic Literature Prize for one of his books of memoir, Minnisbók, in 2007 in addition to numerous other recognitions for his work. Reykjavík City of Literature is honouring Sigurður Pálsson’s memory by engraving lines from one of his city poems on a new square in front of the aforementioned mural in 2021. A good selection of Sigurður Pálsson’s poetry has been published in Martin Regal’s English translation in the book Inside Voices, Outside Light.