English translation of the poem "An Evening Indigo" by Icelandic poet, Gunnbjorg Oladottir

An Evening Indigo How delicate is the centeredness within How fumbling the search for it Autumn brings no hope of mastering it Until the unexpected motion appears below the silverlining in the skye above the ocean.

From the edges of the eyes soar from the deep blue grief.

Appears a bird resting peacefully on the rising current of air.

Light as a feather, still as a mountain it sits between the powers of heaven and earth.

The unquiet grief hungry absorbs the sight of the unmovable bird Amidst the winds and the weathers that mold highlands and shores And destinies of men if it so pleases them

After all, even if human beings must recognise their smallness Acknowledging their dependency on the whims of destinies and weathers Challenged by the riddle of the narrow footpath Where one weighs the difference between what is possible, and what isn´t Attempting to tune the beat of the woes and bringing them to a still, The forceful desire to reign, governs the heart.

Yes the wind attunes the motion of the bird

Between the oceans and the heavens In a centered space, the ever so narrow path The animal rests awakened and yet pacific As if it were a resolution to a woe that yearns for its own ending, And finds its stillness in the wake of hope attached to the pitch dark realism.

An evening Indigo.

Summary The piece is an attempt to grasp the longing to find balance where the human spirit has been left struck with unconsolable grief.

The hope to regain ones´powers again is manifested in the stillness of a bird who sits on the rising current of air, in midst of strong winds, above the ocean and beneath the skies. It becomes and image for the human desire to bring the brokenness to an end. A bird, sitting perfectly still, naturally, effortlessly so as if it has found the key to the kingdom of everlasting stability.

However, the ending suggests the thin line between newly awakened hope and pitch black realism.

Hence the evening indigo.