When I visited Iceland last month, I looked in the bookstores of Reykjavik for bilingual (Icelandic-English) poetry collections; I found none. I did, however, acquire a copy of The Sayings of the Vikings (Gudrun Publishing, 1992), a translation by Bjorn Jonasson of Hávamál -- "sayings of the high one" -- from the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking era and attributed to Odin. Here are several samples that involve number or measurement:
The Nature of Hospitality
I would be invited
everywhere
if I needn't eat at all.
Or if I left two hams
at the house of a friend
where I've eaten only one.
The Nature of Secrecy
Ask you must
and answer well
to be called clever.
One may know your secret
never a second.
If three, a thousand will know.
Moderation and Prosperity
Moderately wise
a man should be
not too crafty or clever.
The best of lives
is led by those
who know the measure of many things.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment