The Fly - Icelandic and English

Litla húsflugan fylgist hissa með lífi stóru tvífætlanna.

The little house-fly, quite surprised, watches the life of the giant duo-peds

A little sleepy flyawake in the middle of the night.

Still there is snow and frost outside.

-I have obviously gotten up too early, the fly thinks aloud (talking to itself), and yawns.

-It is densely-dark outside.

I have to look for another good place to sleep in.

I am certainly going to sleep until springtime.

Even though now it is the middle of the night, the little fly is not the only one who is awake:

The little gigantic duo-ped, the one baby-small in size, grabs its pillow.... risa-tví-fætla

….and throws it in the direction to the other bed, where two giant duo-peds of a grown-up-size sleep. At this very moment the poor little sleepy fly is looking for a good place to sleep in…… full-orðins-stærð ein-mitt vesa+lingur

….. when the pillow comes flying through the air.

The fly almost gets smashed. Thanks to its wings and swift reactions it survives the attack.

Icelandic saying: eiga fótum fjör að launa (“owe life to one’s legs”) all credit to the feet (/fast-running) for getting away alive; fjör (here) life

i.e. to be able to run fast enough to flee -- escape from -- the life-threatening situation.

Our fly “owes life to wings”. survived because of her swift reaction to the danger

Flugan á vængjum fjör að launa.

The fly owes life to her swift wings.

Now, the small baby-size giant-duo-ped has gotten a firm grip on the sucking-rubber of the bottle and swoops it to and fro !

The fly, quickly, takes refuge, but the small un-winged duoped has as a target: a sleeping giant-duoped who has beard in its face.

Something is heard out of the beard, when the bottle lands.

(It is not appropriate to have it repeated (here).)

eitt-hvað

Weird to say this (the

thinks), when there is

and

the

has

effects on the

becomes

(literally: fall down due to sleepiness)

I have to hurry before I fall asleep in the middle of the air.

That dome over there looks rather appealing. I wonder it leaks? (i.e. holds out rain or not).

The little fly makes herself comfortable inside the bell. She is really happy about her new house. Such a beautiful dome it has, that it almost reminds one of a majestic cathedral.

-Here I can sleep in peace and quiet until spring. harð-á-nægð

-What? What !!!

What kind of an earth-quake is this?

(What on earth is going on here?)

I wonder if spring is here already?

The un-winged giant-duopeds spring out of bed with turmoil, stretch themselves and yawn terribly, put on some rags, and shake up the bed's quilts.

-Da da da, says Lilli.

The little fly carefully peeps out of her new house. -What? - Everybody waking up !

But it is still dark outside. Still middle of winter.

The fly becomes curious: -I wonder if they find some blossoming flowers. I better follow them to check on that.

-

Aha! The rain is crying outside ! Now I understand!

Here, there is boiling tropical rain, but not one single flower to be seen. Queer!

The fly wanders into another room where she sees still another giant-duoped of a medium size who tumbles about inside a quilt, grudging in a sleepy voice: -Why do I have to go to that blooming school, mammy? milli-stærð syfju+lega

-You have to go to school, darling, says the un-winged mother -- so that you can choose what interests you. Find out what you want to learn and work at in your life. You will have the opportunity to gain job-satisfaction and earn a living (have enough to eat) when you have grown up.

Enough to

in

-O-oh, the little fly thinks - disappointedas she peeps out of the window.

-It definitely does not look all too promising to lazily get up like this (--out of the warm bed--) to wade right into the snow and darkness.

-I feel like just going on sleeping. Highly recommended: to get comfortable under ones dome again.

Of course there only pass another 24 hours until the earthquake starts anew.

It is a small disadvantage, concerning this otherwise nice house, how it behaves. No real peace for sleep when it starts its noisy behaviour. But one gets used to it as anything else.

--- And winter drags on. dá-lítill svefn-friður

One beautiful morning, warm spring-sunrays wake up Nature from its long winter-sleep.

vetrar-langur (“winter-long”)

But now the dome does not move at all. Now the fine house sleeps.

But ….

The moist soil breathes, as it were, when steam of dew evaporates. The flowers, just about waking up, give away lovely fragrance.

ný-vöknuð

Amazingly enough, now the un-winged giant duopeds do not move at all. Now – when at last spring is in the air –they do not move at all. Not even the little Lilli !

-OK. Everyone can chose to have things his way. Be it your choice you do it. The little fly plunges into spring.

-I am lucky not to be of that un-winged giant duoped species.