Scroll down for language notes
Read by Francesco Barbaccia
Londinium
Legg eyra við jörðu
heyr hróp rotins holds
skelli smiðs og vagnasmiðs,
vinding og togun reipagerðarmannsins.
Það mun stinga í augu af ilmi
af viðarreyk, ásamt nístingi
ammoníaks af daunillu þvagi.
Langt undir þessu öllu rennur
merki um hefnd Boudicca
í lýki þunnrar, rauðrar sneiðar af brenndu járni;
klífur rönd af ösku og leir
viði, gömlum bruna og beinum.
Nú aðþrengt af Norðri og Suðri
innan rásar sem er fóðruð mjúkum aur
áin fóstraði einu sinni neanderdalsmann,
.sem hröktust framhjá í hálfa milljón ára.
Fyrsti kofinn fyrir 15,000 árum
er nú borg ótal tungna
sem tekur við öllum sem koma –
veiðimanni, bónda, útskúfuðum.
© Anthony Fisher, February 2011
Icelandic
is a North Germanic Language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Since it is a west Scandinavian Language, it is most closely related to Faroese and western Norwegian Dialects.. It is not mutually intelligible with the continental Scandinavian languages, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. and is more distinct from the most widely spoken Germanic languages, English and German. The written forms of Icelandic and Faroese are very similar, but their spoken forms are not mutually intelligible.
Translator
Gudrun Sveinbjarnardottir