Steinn Steinarr

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Steinn Steinarr (born Aðalsteinn Kristmundsson, 13 October 1908 – 25 May 1958) was an Icelandic poet. He is one of Iceland's major poets and wrote both modernist and traditional poems.

Early life

Steinn Steinarr was nicknamed Alli (a standard nickname for Aðalsteinn). His farm laborer parents in northwest Iceland (sveitabæ) were so poor that the local authorities divided up the family. The three oldest children were shipped off for adoption, during which relocation the oldest died. The rest of the family was escorted off to a west coast farm. Before long Alli was the only family member left on the farm, where he languished in misery. In all probability the world would never have heard from him again had it not been for an elderly governess three years later. Her name was Kristin Tómasdóttir. She discovered the boy by accident and was so shocked to witness the abuse he had suffered that she adopted him on the spot.

It soon dawned on Kristín, however, that Alli was no ordinary child, but a rebellious, undisciplined loner who loved to ponder and read but detested physical work. His attitude soon earned him the wrath of the local kids who wasted no time before ganging up on him. As always he was quick to wield the most powerful weapon in his arsenal: nasty limericks!

Alli’s second lucky break came in the person of a widely beloved Icelandic poet,

Once again Stefán came to his rescue. He took him to his friend Erlendur who ran the "infamous" Unuhús coffee-house, a hangout for radical, avant-garde artists and thinkers. It was there that a new generation of well-known left wing writers, including Halldór Laxness and Þórbergur Þórðarson, met and discussed the fate of their nation and the world.

The Great Depression

Stefán and Laxness were fervent Catholics and urged their protégé to follow suit. Just then

When his second book, Poems (Ljóð), came out three years later his former comrades were quick to point out that the red flame of revolution had given way to the white smoke of self-doubt. Soon afterward he met an attractive young lady, Ásthildur Björnsdóttir, who was a great admirer of him and his poetry. No sooner had they started to date, however, than her family forced her to terminate this unwelcome relationship.

The later years

Ever since Iceland had obtained its

Meanwhile, thanks to the war, avant-garde artists from around the world were returning home in droves full of new and revolutionary ideas, dying to turn this cultural backwater upside down. Among the newcomers were two young and attractive abstract painters, Louisa Matthíasdóttir and Nína Tryggvadóttir, fresh from their studies in Paris. Erlendur suggested that Steinn model for Nína. Through Nína he soon met and modeled for Louisa. Before long Steinn and “his girls” were the talk of town.

In May 1940, the

Here is a well known stanza from one of his works (VI 1):

This is not only a perfect imitation of the style of the

Another stanza actually makes the whole point clear (I 4):[1]

Here there are no poetical circumlocutions, just ice-cold irony.

Steinn Steinarr's best known work is The Time and the Water, of which the following is the first part.

The second stanza here may be regarded as an object lesson in the difficulty of translation, and perhaps of translating the work of Steinn Steinarr in particular. Its second line may refer to a picture painted "of" the water, or, just as readily, to a picture painted "by" the water, i.e. to a picture the water paints, since "of" and "by" are both among the possible translations of the preposition af. This is all the more important since the first two words of the third line of the stanza simply mean "and me" and do not themselves indicate whether the picture is painted of the narrator or by him. Also, whereas the translator here has interpreted til hálfs in the third line of the stanza as indicating that the narrator has painted half the picture, it is commonly used as an idiom to mean "imperfectly" or "inadequately". Thus the third line here may, for example, mean "and me, imperfectly". This would be consistent with an interpretation according to which both the water and the narrator were inadequate painters. Furthermore, the word máluð in the second line, translated here as "painted", can also mean "worded" or "put into words": this use of the word was archaic by the time this poem was written, but so was a good deal of the skaldic diction Steinn used elsewhere in his poetry.

Steinn satirized anything and everything, and spared nobody, as can be seen from his poem "Ein sorgleg vísa um Sósíalistaflokkinn og mig" ("One

• Andrésson, Kristinn E. Íslenskar nútímabókmenntir 1918-1948. (Modern Icelandic Literature 1918-1948). Reykjavík. 1949.
• Brement, Marshall. Three Modern Icelandic Poets. Steinn Steinarr, Jón úr Vör, Matthias Johannesen. Reykjavík. 1985.
• Sigfús Daðason. Maðurinn og skáldið Steinn Steinarr (The Man and the Poet Steinn Steinarr). Reykjavík. 1987.
• Guðjón Friðriksson. Ljónið öskrar. Saga Jónasar Jónssonar frá Hriflu (The Lion Roars. The Story of Jónas Jónsson from Hrifla). III. Reykjavík, 1993.
• Gylfi Gröndal. Steinn Steinarr. Leit að ævi skálds. (Steinn Steinarr. Searching for a Poet's Life). Reykjavík. 2000.
• Gylfi Gröndal. Steinn Steinarr. Leit að ævi skálds. Seinna bindi. (Steinn Steinarr. Searching for a Poet's Life. Volume 2). Reykjavík. 2001.
• Kristján Karlsson. Steinn Steinarr. Nýtt Helgafell. 2.hefti, 3. árg. 1958.
• Halldór Laxness. Af skáldum. (On Poets). Reykjavík. 1972.
• Perl, Jed (editor). Louisa Matthiasdottir. Reykjavík 1999.

Notes