Einar Már Guðmundsson (b.1954) is a gifted novelist, short story writer and a poet, as well as a dedicated activist with a social vision. He is one of the most widely translated Icelandic authors born in the post-war period. A storyteller with a lyrical perceptive and humorous style, his work charts the growth of urban culture in the capital and the larger-than-life characters that it spawns.
Guðmundsson has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, amongst them the Nordic Council Literary Prize in 1995, The Norwegian Bjørnson Prize and the Scharnberg Memorial Award in Denmark, The Karen Blixen Medal (an honorary award from the Danish Academy) and The Guiseppe Acerbi Literary Prize in Italy.
In 2012 Einar Mar Guðmundsson received the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize, dubbed “the little Nobel”, for his contribution to literature. The Swedish Academy Nordic Prize was created in 1986 to celebrate the Swedish Academy’s 200 year’s anniversary. It is awarded to individuals in one of the Nordic Countries that have made remarkable contributions to literature or Swedish language.
If I was a damaged TV
If I was a damaged TV
I would most certainly
cause more disturbance
in your lives
Translated by Michael Dean Óðinn Pollock
Middle-aged couple
They hang around in the living room
like a sandwich but there is nothing
between them except the contentment
that separates them
Translated by Bernard Scudder
Poem for Christmas
The innocent lambs of the Bible
become lambchops at Christmas
Translated by Michael Dean Óðinn Pollock
Poem for my sweetheart
After approximately 2000 years
when archaeologists dig up our bones
perhaps we could make love in the National Museum
Translated by Michael Dean Óðinn Pollock
I just can’t stop
I just can’t stop
at the corner of your lips
even though they are red
like traffic lights
Translated by Michael Dean Óðinn Pollock
The Russian Revolution
The Russian revolution
is like a family album that
we thumb through without knowing who
took the photos and it’s even
doubtful who they are of
only one thing’s certain:
Frankenstein came to power in the end
Translated by Bernard Scudder.
Science fiction
Don’t ask
if life exists
on other planets
until you’ve
made quite certain
that it exists on this one too
Translated by Anna Yates
