Baldur Ragnarsson

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Baldur Ragnarsson
[[Image: Baldur Ragnarsson, April 2005 \|200px]] Baldur Ragnarsson, April 2005
Born	August 25, 1930 (1930-08-25) (age 77) Iceland
Occupation	novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist
Nationality	Icelandic
Writing period	1958-
Genres	Poetry, Essays

Baldur Ragnarsson (born 25 August 1930) is an Icelandic poet and author of Esperanto works. He was a teacher and a superintendent of schools in Iceland.

[edit] Esperanto

He learned Esperanto at school in 1949 and has been active in the movement to promote the use of this language since 1952.

Ragnarsson was president of the Icelandic Esperanto Association for many years. He presided over the World Esperanto Association's literary contest from 1975 to 1985. He was president of the organizing committee for the 1977 World Esperanto Congress at Reykjavík and vice-president of the UEA in charge of culture and education from 1980 to 1986. He has since then been an honorary meember of this organization.

A Member of the Esperanto Academy since 1979, he was editor of the journal Norda Prismo from 1958 to 1974.

In 2007 the Association of Esperanto-speaking authors (Esperantlingva Verkista Asocio) nominated him as their candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature following the death of William Auld in 2006.

[edit] Works

Ragnarsson has composed poetic works in Icelandic as well as books on Icelandic language. He has also written two celebrated collections of Esperanto poems: Ŝtupoj sen nomo and Esploroj.

In 2007 Edistudio published La lingvo serena: his complete works. In addition to the poems of his two previous collections, the tome contained all the poems he has published subsequently, as well as all the essays which he has written on the topics of literature and linguistics.

Poetry

Ŝtupoj sen Nomo, 1959
Esploroj, 1974
"Deflorazione" and "Malvirgigo" in El la nova ĝardeno (Dal nuovo giardino), Dante Bertolini, ed., Pedrazzini: Locarno, 1979, 100 pp.
La lingvo serena, 2007

Translations into Esperanto

Sub stelo rigida, two collections by the Icelandic poet Þorsteinn frá Hamri, 1963
Islandaj pravoĉoj, three tales and a poem from Old Icelandic literature, 1964
Sagao de Njal, Njal's Saga, the greatest of the Icelandic sagas, 2003
Sendependaj homoj, a novel by Halldór Laxness on the Icelandic countryside at the turn of the 20th century, 2007

In addition, he has published ddozens of translations in various journals, in recent tmes principally in the journal La tradukisto (Esperanto).

Essays

La Sagaoj kaj Zamenhof: stabiligaj faktoroj 1982
Studado de alia lingvo 1982
"Esperanto kiel anti-lingvo" in Serta gratulatoria in honorem Juan Régulo. Universidad de La Laguna, Salamanca, 3,266 pp., 1986 ISBN 84-600-4290-1
La proza poemo: la ĝenro, ĝiaj latentoj kaj aplikoj 1987
La Poezia Arto (Five lectures) 1988
Cent jaroj de poezio en Esperanto". 1989
La poezio de la skaldoj
La poemoj de Armand Su 1993
Kombino de poeta virtuozeco kaj ties instrumento 1994
Tradukante la antikvan islandan literaturon en Esperanto 1998
"La fono kaj la fronto: kelkaj konsideroj pri semiotikaj aspektoj de la Esperanta poezio" in Lingva arto. Vilmos Benczik, ed., Universala Esperanto-Asocio, Rotterdam: 1999, 217 pp. ISBN 92-9017-064-6
La lingvo serena 2007