Undirdjúpin

by Bragi Ólafsson

Skip siglir frá landi.

Það fjarlægist eins og maður fjarlægist

mann: það verður minna

en það var

þegar það lá við höfnina,

og alltaf minna og minna

eftir því sem höfnin stækkar

og himinninn þrengir að því.

Svo lítið er það orðið

þegar hafsröndin mætir því

að hafi það haft einhverja von

er sú orusta töpuð – og það sekkur.

The Deep

by Bragi Ólafsson

A ship sails from land.

It moves away like people drift

apart: it becomes smaller

than it was

when it lay in the harbour,

and smaller and smaller still

as the harbour expands

and the sky narrows in.

So little has it become

when it meets the horizon

that if it ever had any hope

that battle is lost—and it sinks.

translated from Icelandic by K. T. Billey

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Bragi Ólafsson has published books of poetry, novels, short stories, and plays for the stage and radio. He worked as a musician for years, best known internationally as the bassist for The Sugarcubes. Ólafsson’s poetry and plays have been translated into various languages, and two of his novels, The Pets/Gaeludyrin (2008) and The Ambassador/Sendiherrann (2010) are available in English, German, and Danish. The Pets has also been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic. His plays for the National Theatre and Reykjavík City Theatre have enjoyed great popularity as well as controversy. Four of his novels have been nominated for the Icelandic Literature Prize, two received the Booksellers Prize, and Party Games/Samkvaemisleikir (Bjartur, 2004) won the DV Cultural Prize. The Ambassador was shortlisted for the Nordic Literature Prize, and the play The Chickens/Hænuungarnir (2010) was nominated for the Nordic Drama Prize. Among Ólafsson’s own translations are works by Harold Pinter, Paul Auster, and Max Jacob.

K.T. Billey’s poetry collection VULGAR MECHANICS (seeking publication) was a finalist for the 2015 Pamet River Prize from YESYES books. It is being rendered into Spanish by poet Soledad Marambio, who published an acclaimed translation of Anne Carson’s “The Glass Essay” in 2015 (Cuadro de Tiza Ediciones). Originally from rural Alberta, Canada, Billey won Vallum’s 2015 Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in journals such as CutBank, The New Orleans Review, Prelude, Phantom, and others. An Assistant Editor for Asymptote, she translates from Icelandic and Spanish.

Circumference

Poetry in Translation

Undirdjúpin

The Deep