Iceland, it seems, is full of hidden poets.
When they’re not at their day jobs, many of the island’s 330,000 inhabitants express themselves through verse, including politicians, businessmen, horse breeders and scientists who study the genetic isolation of the island in pursuit of medical breakthroughs.
Kari Stefansson, one of the world’s leading geneticists and the founder of Decode Genetics, recalled a poem he wrote in 1996, a few months after the birth of Dolly, the cloned sheep.
Photo taken from NASA
照片：美國太空總署
“I was a little bit depressed,” Mr. Stefansson said in his office, which, with its slit windows and computer screens, looked a bit like the interior of a spaceship. “One of my ways to deal with that was to write a small poem,” he said, before proceeding to recite it:
Where do I find, lost in the brightness of a sunlit day,
The happiness of an unhappy man
Fortunate only to be just one copy of himself.
Everything else stinks.
Poetry is a national pastime, but not a particularly “specialist activity,” said Sveinn Yngvi Egilsson, a professor of Icelandic literature at the University of Iceland. “It’s part of being an Icelander,” he said. “Yes, it’s charming, isn’t it?”
In earlier times, verses were an integral part of social gatherings and were often improvised, he said. Poetry contests were held, with the prizes going to the wittiest, sharpest verses. The most popular verse form, he said, is called ferskeytla, four rhymed lines that can be divided into two parts.
The cold oceanic climate and long winter nights may also have something to do with it. “People usually get bored, and they try to humor each other,” Professor Egilsson said. “One of those ways is poetry.”
(New York Times / Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura)
冰島似乎到處都是隱藏的詩人。
在從事正職工作之餘，島上三十三萬居民中有許多人會寄情文字，其中有政治人物、商人、馬匹育種師，也有為了追求醫學突破而鑽研該島嶼遺傳隔離性的科學家們。
卡里·斯特凡松是世界頂尖的遺傳學家之一，也是基因解碼公司的創始人。他回憶起一九九六年複製羊桃莉誕生幾個月後他寫下的一首詩。
「當時我有點鬱悶，」斯特凡松在自己的辦公室裡說，狹長的窗子配上室內的電腦螢幕，讓這裡看起來有點像太空船的內部。「我處理這種情緒的一種方法，就是寫一首小詩，」他說完便背誦起他的詩作：
明媚的日子裡灑滿了陽光，
不幸者的幸福卻無處尋覓。
幸運只是他的一份複製品，
其餘的一切全都散發臭氣。
詩歌是一種全民休閒活動，不是什麼特別的專業活動，冰島大學冰島文學教授斯溫·伊格維·埃吉爾松說。「這是冰島的特色，」他說，「這很迷人，不是嗎？」
他說，在早年間，詩歌是冰島社交聚會不可或缺的一部分，經常是即興創作的，還會舉行詩歌比賽，最風趣、最犀利的詩歌會獲得嘉獎。他說，最流行的詩歌形式名叫「ferskeytla」，它有四句押韻的詩句，可以分為兩部分。
冰島的詩歌風氣也可能同當地寒冷的海洋氣候與漫長的冬夜有關。「人們常常會覺得無聊，於是就想要相互逗個樂，」埃吉爾松說，「而其中一種方式就是詩歌。」（紐約時報／晉其角譯）
“Beep—beep—beep.” Your phone roars in the dead of night and wakes you up. Adrenaline surges as a low rumble shakes the pictures on the nightstand. Panic threatens, but you remember the earthquake drill you practiced. You drop to the ground, take cover under your desk, and hold on tight. Though the shaking intensifies, relief washes over you because you knew it was coming thanks to the warning. How do we get these precious seconds before an earthquake hits? Enter earthquake early warning systems, life-saving tools that provide a crucial head start for taking cover or evacuating. Operating through a network of
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