This Translation Tuesday, the sparse lines of Brynja Hjálmsdóttir express quiet horror at that most queasy and invasive of procedures, tooth extraction. Please: lie very still in the man’s chair, submit to the gassing, and let him pry your tooth from its socket.
A woman opens
her mouth
for the dentist
Gas thickens and shrouds the room
The foulest thing
to do to another person
is to pull out
their teeth
Yet it’s how
many good men
make a living
Translated from the Icelandic by Rachel Britton
Brynja Hjálmsdóttir is an Icelandic poet and author and has been described by critics as “One of Iceland’s finest young writers.” Brynja is the 2022 recipient of the Ljóðstafur Jóns úr Vör poetry prize and of the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Encouragement Award. Her first book, Okfruman was awarded Poetry Book of the Year by the Icelandic Booksellers’ Choice Awards and nominated for the Icelandic Women’s Literary Award. Her second book of poetry, Kona lítur við was nominated for the Maístjarnan Poetry Award. Her work has been translated into six languages.
Rachel Britton is a writer and translator from New York, based in Iceland. She holds a BA in English and creative writing from the State University of New York at Geneseo and has received support from the Fulbright Commission and Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. Her work appears in Glass and Salt Hill, among others.
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