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 READ MORE…