Chad W. Post, master of Open Letter Books out of the University of Rochester and the force behind accompanying translation blog Three Percent wrote this about some translations I did of Per Højholt's astonishing Praxis 8: Album, Tumult. I'm not finished with Højholt yet, not by a long chalk.
Click here: Three Percent: Per Hojholt in Calque
the interlingual zoo
translations etc., maintained by martin aitken
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
niels hav
Niels Hav from Lemvig in West Jutland, latterly of Copenhagen's Nørrebro district, is one of this country's finest poets, and, I think, my personal favourite. I've been fortunate enough to translate some of Niels Hav's poems into English and to have had them published in various journals in Canada and the US. Niels tells me some more are coming up in Absinthe #16 this autumn. Listen to the sound of Lemvig here>>. Read the words here:
KÆRLIGHED
Det er sådan et stort ord.
Eller fik jeg det galt i halsen?
Elske, hvad er det,
når det kommer til stykket?
Mange veksler med tiden den store
kærlighed til småpenge.
Jeg elsker dig. Og du hiver stikket ud.
Jeg elsker dig. Og du kyler min bog
i nakken på mig.
Jeg elsker dig. Og verden eksploderer!
Vi tørster efter hinanden i uvidenhed,
ligesom elefanter.
Uden børn ingen lykke,
sagde Schumann. Clara fødte ham
syv børn som modgift mod melankoli.
Det var ikke nok!
Han blev sindssyg, forsøgte selvmord
og døde på en nerveanstalt.
Hun spillede klaver. Det er dét,
de kalder kærlighed.
Niels Hav © 2004
KÆRLIGHED
Det er sådan et stort ord.
Eller fik jeg det galt i halsen?
Elske, hvad er det,
når det kommer til stykket?
Mange veksler med tiden den store
kærlighed til småpenge.
Jeg elsker dig. Og du hiver stikket ud.
Jeg elsker dig. Og du kyler min bog
i nakken på mig.
Jeg elsker dig. Og verden eksploderer!
Vi tørster efter hinanden i uvidenhed,
ligesom elefanter.
Uden børn ingen lykke,
sagde Schumann. Clara fødte ham
syv børn som modgift mod melankoli.
Det var ikke nok!
Han blev sindssyg, forsøgte selvmord
og døde på en nerveanstalt.
Hun spillede klaver. Det er dét,
de kalder kærlighed.
Niels Hav © 2004
red hair
Packed house last night at Copenhagen's LiteraturHaus where I shared the bill with Thomas E. Kennedy, Line-Maria Lång, Niels Hav and Boy in Blue for the launch of The Girl With Red Hair (buy it here>>), an anthology put out by Serving House Books in the US and including Dorthe Nors' Gwen, Betsy and Anne-Marie Jensen in my translation. Great soup, too.
Monday, February 7, 2011
anyway
There was a piece in one of the dailies here about how miserably we book translators are paid. This is true, I imagine, but we do it anyway.
Monday, January 31, 2011
conjunction
Friday, January 28, 2011
mirror lands honoured
Congratulations to Birgithe Kosovic, whose magnificent Det dobbelte land [Mirror Lands] just won the prestigious Weekendavisen Award for 2010.
There's an English sample out there somewhere, a short excerpt from which has already been put up here>>.
Publishers of the world arise from your slumbers!
There's an English sample out there somewhere, a short excerpt from which has already been put up here>>.
Publishers of the world arise from your slumbers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)