Einar Bragi

Einar Bragi
Born Einar Bragi Sigurðsson
April 7, 1921
Eskifjördur, Iceland
Died March 26, 2005 (aged 83)
Reykjavík
Occupation poet, publisher, translator
Language Icelandic
Period Post-World War II
Literary movement modernism

Einar Bragi (or Einar Bragi Sigurðsson) (7 April 1921, Eskifjördur - 26 March 2005, Reykjavík) was an Icelandic poet and publisher. He was a modernist who founded and edited the journal Birtingur, the leading forum for modernism in Iceland at the time.

Einar Bragi published nine books of poetry between 1950 and 1980. He is known as one of the Atom Poets.[1] He also translated poetry into Icelandic.

Poetry

Einar Bragi's first two books were published while he was studying in Sweden; he returned to Iceland in 1953.[2] His early writing was often polemic, and in the early stages of his career he felt the need to defend his own poetry and that of the other Atom Poets, arguing that modern poetry was intrinsically different from traditional poetry.[3] Like other poets of his generation, he was influenced by Tómas Guðmundsson, and "even attempted to match Tómas Guðmundsson's polish in style."[4] His subject matter includes love and nature, often joined together, and he is critical of greed and exploitation. His critique of social injustice, according to scholar of Icelandic literature Neijmann, is expressed through sarcasm or the use of imagery derived from nature, and is free from sermonizing.[3]

His forms are highly varied and he employed alliteration and rhyme, but also wrote free verse and prose poetry. Some of his longer poems employ the traditional Icelandic form of the thula.[3]

In the nine slim volumes of poetry he published, Einar Bragi reworks and revisits the same material,[2] "so that in effect the poet was republishing his work over and over again." His prose poems were called "fine," with "a refined sense of poetic diction,"[1] and the Columbia dictionary of modern European literature likewise praises his "refined lyrical verse."[5] French critic Régis Boyer also commented on his admirably rhythmical prose.[6]

In addition to writing poetry, Einar Bragi also translated poetry "from virtually all European languages,"[1] including English, French and Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Sami, Greenlandic, etc.[3]), and acquired a reputation as a translator.[7][8]

Publishing ventures

With the Swiss-German artist Dieter Roth, he founded the publishing company Forlag Editions,[9] which published a number of important books by Roth.[10][11] In 1953, he founded the journal Birtingur, which became the "main forum for Icelandic modernists"[3] and was published until 1968.

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Firchow, Evelyn Scherabon (Spring 1985). "Rev. of Einar Bragi, Ljóð". World Literature Today 59 (2): 278. doi:10.2307/40141569. JSTOR 40141568.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Magnússon, Sigurður A. (1982). The Postwar poetry of Iceland. U of Iowa P. p. xl. ISBN 978-0-87745-115-0.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Neijmann, Daisy L. (2007). A history of Icelandic literature. U of Nebraska P. pp. 474–477, 481. ISBN 978-0-8032-3346-1.
  4. ↑ Einarsson, Stefán (1957). A history of Icelandic literature. Johns Hopkins Press for the American-Scandinavian Foundation. p. 331.
  5. ↑ Bédé, Jean Albert; William Benbow Edgerton (1980). Columbia dictionary of modern European literature. Columbia UP. p. 381. ISBN 978-0-231-03717-4.
  6. ↑ Régis Boyer, "Le modernisme poétique en Islande," Béhar, Henri (1982). Mélusine No. 3. Lausanne: l'Age de l'Homme. pp. 61–79. ISBN 978-2-8251-0824-6.
  7. ↑ Jansson, Mats; Jakob Lothe; Hannu Riikonen (2004). European and Nordic modernisms. Norvik Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-1-870041-58-4.
  8. ↑ Weisgerber, Jean (1984). Les Avant-gardes littéraires au XXe siècle: Histoire. John Benjamins. pp. 442–43. ISBN 978-963-05-2667-8.
  9. ↑ Stiles, Kristine; Peter Howard Selz (1996). Theories and documents of contemporary art: a sourcebook of artists' writings. U of California P. p. 284. ISBN 978-0-520-20253-5.
  10. ↑ Buhmann, Stephanie (April 2004). "Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
  11. ↑ Roth, Dieter; Theodora Vischer; Bernadette Walter (2003). Roth time: a Dieter Roth retrospective. The Museum of Modern Art. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-87070-035-4.