Sjón

icelandic

fez instamatic

guð dottar
yfir kanildúfunum

guð dottar
yfir skóm úr plasti
yfir glitrandi tvinnakeflum
yfir bleikum sælgætismolum

guð dottar
undir lúsugum hundsþófunum
undir mósaiklögðum borðum
undir svuntu slátrarans

guð dottar
með kanildúfunum

© Edda - Media and Publishing Ltd.
From: myrkar fígúrur
Reykjavík : Mal og Menning, 1998
Audio production: 2000 M. Mechner, literaturWERKstatt berlin

Other people’s aquariums

What I like about other people’s apartments is that the way
objects are arranged in space is given, I can only
watch them be.
In my own apartment what makes me nervous is the opposite —
nothing is definitive.
As in life. Fragile, vulnerable the way things are today.
I could, theoretically, move anything
at any time. My things, clothes, wardrobes and tables
are suffused with the provisional nature of my existence
here on earth, with my uncertainty, my mortality.
I uncritically accept all aquariums belonging to other people
(as long as there is no plastic castle inside) only my own aquarium I cannot come to terms with, it appears dark, its dirt falls on my head
I witness dying fish that I then have to throw into the toilet
the flowers in it have to be endlessly moved around replaced with new ones because they turn yellow.
Yet, I keep it alive for years, buy new fish, keep them warm, clean the sand and stones unable to stop. Of course, until it cracks and the water pours out I will never voluntarily abolish my aquarium.

Translated from the Czech by Alexandra Büchler
first published in: The World for a Moment, the Czech focus issue of Modern Poetry in Translation