Henvendelsen
Verden forklarer seg som skritt i grusen, sollys,
en kvinne gjenkjenner faren sin (en berøring
og litt varm pust, savn uendra gjennom x antall år).
Men hvordan framstår minnet i hukommelsen;
pappas nakke, gjennomskint morgenluft.
Verden forteller at sjela er stoff, siden den kan skades
av et våpen, som jo selv er stoff.
En kvinne sier: en hvilken som helst bekymring forløser,
men hva flyr bort uten å ta med seg den minste vekt:
bare muskler og sener, ord og kjærtegn, bare det.
Translations of this Poem
Approach
Translator: John Burnside
This world explains itself as footsteps on a gravel path,
sunlight, and a woman who recalls her father,
(a finger brushing her cheek; a tremor of warmth;
a loss unaltered through these many years).
But how does the recollection appear
in memory: Daddy’s skin; the shimmer of morning light?
As the world is explained, the soul is material stuff,
something that might be destroyed by worldly means.
Though a woman will say that nothing can be redeemed
except what is stripped to its purest, unweighted essence:
to muscle and sinew; to language; to practised love.
2000
About this poem
‘Northern Light’, the Scottish Poetry Library event at the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe in 2000, featured readings by Rauni Magga Lukkari in Sami and Norwegian with translations read by Gerda Stevenson, in Norwegian by Rune Christiansen and in Gaelic by Aonghas MacNeacail.
The Royal Norwegian Consulate supported the commissioning of translations for the occasion by John Burnside.
