I decided to shock myself a little by changing the language on Facebook from English to Icelandic this evening. I came the conclusion that it was time to take the leap, and unfortunately I am so lost! But, of all the words I could comprehend, something on my timeline really stuck out:

I recognized words like “staður” (place) and “mynd” (picture), but there was a word that didn’t quite match with the original Facebook I knew. It’s “hjarta,” or “heart.” Usually in this comment box, Facebook asks, “What’s on your mind?” Seeing the word heart mentioned definitely made me speculate a more poetic interpretation. The full sentence in question is actually “hvað liggur þér á hjarta” which translates approximately into “What lies in your heart?” A few Icelanders have told me that this is not an intentionally poetic creation on Facebook’s account, but rather the actual term for asking someone what’s on their mind. I guess this could be considered a phrase of the day, because it goes alongside all of the other poetic compounds mentioned in previous posts.

For your own viewing pleasure, here is an example of what I now have to go through on a daily basis with Facebook:

 The last one is neat in that picture because it says “Lexí now uses Facebook in Icelandic.”

And so it begins.