blind man's bluff

Niels Hav, from Lemvig in northern Jutland, has already established himself overseas as a contemporary Nordic voice with a number of foreign-language publications in e.g. Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Turkish and Dutch. But it is in Canada in particular that he has made his mark outside Denmark. An English collection of his poetry, God’s Blue Morris, translated by Patrick Friesen and P. K. Brask was published by Crane Editions in 1993, with a second collection, entitled We Are Here, put out by Book Thug of Toronto in 2006. My own translation of Hav's poem Blindebuk [Blind Man's Bluff] will be appearing in the Vancouver-based journal PRISM International in the spring. In the meantime, here's the original.

Blindebuk

De gav ham et tørklæde for øjnene

og snurrede ham rundt, den leg elskede han.

Svimmel af mørke tumlede han henrykt omkring

mellem sine kusiner, tre gratier

hvinende af latter. De lo ad ham, hans eufori,

som også var deres. Han fangede dem én for én,

men gættede systematisk forkert, og festen fortsatte

hele eftermiddagen. Han var lykkelig i sit mørke,

utrættelig og dristig, en grænse var passeret,

han rørte ved deres blussende ansigter;

hans hænder var lykkelige. Og han ønskede bare

at blive ved, da de ubarmhjertigt løsnede sløjfen

og trak tørklædet af ham. Han stod fortumlet

og grædefærdig, chokeret af lyset,

som for et øjeblik gjorde ham fuldstændig blind.

© Niels Hav