The head of the Icelandic central bank, and former prime minister, Davíð Oddsson, has refused to resign from his post, as requested by the new prime minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Farðu bölvaður frá mér brott
Forðist þig allt sem heitir gott
Yfir þig dynji hefndar hríð
Himin og jörð þér risti níð
Update: by Kristján Jónsson, the "Mountain Skáld" (1842-1869).
Rough translation:
Go away from me now and be damned
May all that is good avoid you
Snowstorm of vengeance pile on you
Heaven and earth carve you curses
A second director is also refusing to resign, while the third has done so.
Protest has been called for at 8 am this morning; I'm half hoping they carry the bastards out of their offices and throw them in the harbour.
Here is the back story from Iceland Weather Report.
Along with the tone as of sunday
- mbl.is is reporting a crowd outside the bank monday morning.
Dabbi, perhaps more than any one other person, is responsible for the Icelandic banking crisis, having been prime minister and then head of the central bank at key times, and an active proponent of both deregulation and reckless risk taking.
The grauniad, in their 25 people responsible for the world financial crisis put the previous prime minister, Geir Haarde, on the list - this was a mistake, he was never more than an errand boy for Dabbi.
Words can not express my dislike and disdain for the man, he has nearly destroyed a nation, shows no remorse nor understanding, and now claims it'd be unfair for him to have to give up his little sinecure.
I'm surprised he didn't declare himself King of Iceland while he was at it.
I hope my cousins are in a bad mood this morning.
Things have gone on for too long and gone too far.
More realistically, Alþingi will pass new legislation permitting the firing of the central bank directors and setting new guidelines for hiring and firing of future directors to preclude political appointees.
PS:
"King of Iceland"
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Hello! I'm a reader from sweden who's been trying to understand the little text in icelandic above. I'm ashamed to say i only managed to get some of it ("frá mér brott" and "þig allt sem heitir gott" is practically identical in swedish and i think i get the gist of "Himin og jörð þér risti nÃð"). If you could post a translation so i can see how wrong i am i'd be really happy.
This DavÃð Oddsson-character seems like a real rövhÃ¥l by the way.
I'd be interested in a translation as well. I just tried on a random translation site hoping for something garbled but vaguely understandable but was foiled and foiled hard!
"Farðu bölvaður frá mér take away Forðist þig everything whom name fine Over þig boom second-strike hrÃÂð Skyey and jörð þér roaster nÃÂð"
Erm. :D
I third the call for a translation.
Based on what I remember of German, I can make guesses about some of the words there. But (1) there are multiple possibilities, and (2) any resemblance between my guesses and the translation Captain Obvious got is purely coincidental.
Well, "allt" is obviously cognate to "all", and depending on context might well translate as "everything" or "everyone". But my guesses for "brott" are either "bread" or "brother", and "gott" might be some form of "to get" or "God". Oh, and the phrase "Himin og jörd" might be "heaven and earth". But that's about as far as I can get.
I was more wrong than i thaught. I guessed "mér brott"="more crime(s)" (in swedish mer=more and brott=crime) and "Himin og jörð þér risti nÃð"="Heaven and earth crumbles down" (in swedish rister=crumbles or teares, ristar=carves, ned=down, nid=a very bad act). Thanks for the translation!