the silence

by Bragi Ólafsson

þögnin
the silence

finally then — but not
until then — at the end of summer,
when the excavators, saws, drills and high
pressure pumps were silenced,

were we able to go out in the yard
and sit down, as we had originally planned
when we bought the house, but then already

fall was beginning to settle in,
the sun not as high in the air
as in early june,
when the drills were switched on, and excavators

driven into the neighboring yards,
saws started up and high-pressure pumps
on the highest setting

Translated by K. B. Thors.
Originally appeared in, Circumference, Poetry in Translation.