A saw a sad poem on an Icelandic website that gave me a strange feeling of familiarity. Despite the fact that the poem consists of very simple words and sentences, I found translating it virtually impossible. Nevertheless, it went something like this:
Emptiness
Like stepping on air
without falling
Like green becoming yellow
and yellow becoming green
Like sounds becoming relative
and losing connection to what moves
Like sleep being the only joy that remains
and dreams having lost their purpose
And like everything is nothing
nothing becomes everything
Such is emptiness
-Anonymous Icelander
*Note, I changed the original due to problems with translations:
Tómleikinn
Líkt og að stíga á tómið
án þess að falla
Líkt og grænn verði gulur
og gulur verði grænn
Líkt og hljóð verði afstæð
og missi tengsl við það sem hreyfist
Líkt og svefn sé eina hin eina gleði eftir
og draumar hafi misst sinn tilgang
Líkt og allt er ekkert
og ekkert er allt
Slíkur er tómleikinn
-Ónefndur höfundur
Posted by Maria at June 3, 2005 01:26 AM | TrackBacks