Steinn Steinarr

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Steinn Steinarr (actually Aðalsteinn Kristmundsson ; born October 13, 1908 at the farm Laugaland, Strandabyggð ( Vestfirðir ); † May 25, 1958 in Reykjavík ) was an Icelandic poet .

Many Icelanders see Steinarr as their greatest poet. Outside of his home country, however, he is hardly known. There are hardly any translations of his works.

life and work

The son of poor farmers from northwest Iceland came to Reykjavík at the age of 18. He was penniless and suffered from muscle wasting in his left arm, but had a mentor in Stefán Sigurðsson frá Hvítadal who introduced him to poets and thinkers such as the future Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness . During the Great Depression Steinarr turned to the Communists to, but was expelled from the Communist Party of Iceland.

Already in Steinn Steinarr's first volume of poetry Rauður loginn brann ("Rot burned the flame") from 1934, there are first doubts about the communist worldview to which this volume was still dedicated - as well as about "everything else", as Stefán Einarsson in his story of Icelandic literature. From his second book, simply titled Ljóð ("Poems"), pessimistic and nihilistic moods prevail in Steinn Steinarr's work . After the Second World War , his poetry became more abstract, inspired by contemporary abstract painting , from which his last cycle of poems Tíminn og vatnið ("Time and Water") is shaped.

Steinn Steinarr died in 1958 at the age of only 49 and was buried in the Fossvogsgarður cemetery in Reykjavík.

Works

  • 1934 - Rauður loginn brann (German: Red burned the flame )
  • 1937 - Ljóð (German: Poems )
  • 1940 - Spor í sandi (German: traces in the sand )
  • 1942 - Ferð án fyrirheits (German: Journey without promise )
  • 1943 - Tindátarnir (German: Die Zinnsoldaten )
  • 1948 - Tíminn og vatnið (German: The time and the water )
  • 2000 - Halla

literature

  • Steinn Steinarr: Tíminn og vatnið. = The time and the water (= Icelandic modern literature. Vol. 1). Translated from the Icelandic by Marita Bergsson. With an afterword by Gert Kreutzer. Kleinheinrich, Münster 1987, ISBN 3-926608-10-2 (bilingual edition).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gert Kreutzer in the afterword to the translation of Tíminn og vatnið
  2. ↑ “... he was beginning to doubt the communistic gospel as well as anything else”. Stefán Einarsson: A history of Icelandic literature . Johns Hopkins Press, New York 1957, pp. 324 .
  3. ↑ Stefán Einarsson: A history of Icelandic literature . Johns Hopkins Press, New York 1957, pp. 324 .
  4. ↑ Stefán Einarsson: A history of Icelandic literature . Johns Hopkins Press, New York 1957, pp. 325 .
Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .
personal data
SURNAME Steinn Steinarr
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aðalsteinn Kristmundsson (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Icelandic lyric poet
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH at the Laugaland farm, Vestfirðir
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1958
Place of death Reykjavík