I simply can't remember if I ever sent this to the list. If that is the
case, please excuse my blunder and move on. It's a translation I did of a
short text by my friend Gerla, a visual artist and set designer. She wrote
it to accompany a piece she was asked to contribute to a permanent display
of contemporary work at a museum near Akureyri. The original text and this
translation will be put up next to her piece. I think it's a very neat and
very rich text.
Gerla:
TO THE MEMORY OF GUDRÚN THORFINNSDÓTTIR
I make a chair and plant climbers.
They're meant to weave around the chair.
In this way I remember my grandmother.
And she born a hundred years too soon.
Died around the time she should have been born.
A crofter's wife in northern Iceland - with no interest in farming.
Bore seven schildren - didn't like children.
Loved beauty, literature, flowers and trees.
Envied by her neighbours for one thing: her garden.
There is no sign of it today.
[transl. by Árni Ibsen]
Best
Árni
--
Árni Ibsen
Stekkjarkinn 19,
220 Hafnarfjördur,
Iceland
tel.: +354-555-3991
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.centrum.is/~aibsen/
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