“Time and Water”

Time and Water

Time is like the water,
and the water is cold and deep
as my witness.

And time is like a picture,
which is painted by the water
and me, but half-done.

And time and water
run un-channelled to exhaustion
in my witness.

Steinn Steinarr ("Tíminn og vatnið" in the original Icelandic)
Translation by Sheila Graham-Smith © 2015

 
From Wikipedia:

Steinn Steinarr (born Aðalsteinn Kristmundsson, 13 October 1908 – 25 May 1958) was an Icelandic poet.

Many Icelanders regard Steinn Steinarr as their greatest poet, although he remains almost unknown outside of Iceland, due perhaps to a lack of effective translations of his poetry.

Image links to its source on Wiki Commons  
Sumarkvöld við Reykjavík (Summer Evening in Reykjavík) by Þórarinn B. Þorláksson (1867-1924). Made in 1904.
Public domain.