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Fjordscene Poetry

Poetry, writing and translations by K-M Skalkenæs

  • English poetry
    • 30 after thoughts (2021)
    • divisive / dismissive / missive (2018)
    • Light Requires Darkness (2018)
    • Seen From a Distance People Lose Their Eyes (2017)
    • Confessions of the Cold Light of Dawn (2014)
    • What Bits of Peace My Life’s Ensured (2014)
    • Poems Inspired by Paintings (2014)
  • Danish poetry
    • De spor man efterlader sig (2017)
  • Translations
    • Edith Södergran
      • Poems
      • The September Lyre
      • The Rose Altar
      • The Shadow of the Future
      • The Land Which Is Not
    • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
      • naked human
      • The Lowest Country
      • Towards Jerusalem
      • Nineteen Poems
    • Edvard Søderberg
  • Info
    • About My Poetry
    • About The Collections
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    • Poetry
    • Translations

I primarily translate poetry, and primarily from the languages: Danish, Swedish and German – into English.

I originally started translating poetry in order to make the works of Gustaf Munch-Petersen available in English – both so that I could share it with friends (and later, by extension, with the world at large), and as a sort of tribute. After translating his entire oeuvre, I went ahead with translating Edith Södergran in the same manner.

My other translations are more sporadic, and count poems that are meaningful to me – intended to stand on their own as they are.

I try my hardest to maintain the content of the poems without sacrifizing rhyme and meter – but if small alterations of the former are necessary in order to get the latter to work, I may choose to do so. I am, after all, a poet before I am a translator.

Category: Translations

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Shadow of the Future
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Planets

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Wild earth rolling forwards in burning, cutting spaces,happy when the air whips your cheek,happy when speed revolves around you.The planets only want the speed of their orbit.The beaches of the All blink like question marks.Hastier, quicker, more and more merciless, […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Shadow of the Future
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Stars Are Swarming

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

The stars rise. The stars swarm. Strange evening.A thousand hands lift the veil off the face of the new epoch.The new epoch looks down upon the Earth: melting hot glances.Madness runs quietly in the hearts of people.Yellow stupidities embrace the […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Shadow of the Future
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Wallenstein Profile

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Night which calls, I play throw and catch with you– my foul dice.My hand is heavy and fearless, with evil powerdoes it play its game, which never denies help.My dice falls heavy with fate.Hail, the way of power goes through the […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Shadow of the Future
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Creator Figures

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

My heart of iron wants to sing its song.Force, forcethe sea of people,shape, shapethe great mass of peoplefor the joy of gods.Rocking in loose saddles we come,the unknown, improvident, strong.Does the wind carry us ahead?Like scorning laughter our voices sound […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Shadow of the Future
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Hostile Stars

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Hostile stars ascend.Eternally foreign, eternally distantyou seek to smile to one another, deceived by human faith.Every star has a freezing gaze.Every star is proud and lonely in its forceand doesn’t believe in the twinkling of stars.Every star deceived Man to […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Shadow of the Future
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: An Old Ruler

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Earth, on your back I have built a castle for conquerors,there the strong ones shall find shelter,the strong ones who are waiting.There stand the melancholy windowsand speak of crashed destinies,there you must walk young, you bronze peoplewith tremors, alike myself. And your […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Shadow of the Future
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Tolerance

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Can you catch a star ascending in the sky with your hands,can you measure its flight?Do not try to prevent its ascendance.The sparks of the planets fall over the Earth, foreign to your hand.Strange and hot are the sparks of […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Shadow of the Future
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Mystery

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

All people are toys.I was a toy myself yesterday.Today I am the one who breaks open the mystery.I want everybody to come to me,I want everybody to hear how my heart beats.Fire and blood and the balm of the future shall […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Roses

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

The world is mine.Wherever I goI throw roses to everybody.The artist loves every marble ear that hear his words.What does pain and misery mean to me?Everything crashed with a bang:I sing.Such rises the great hymn of pain from a happy […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Scherzo

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Stars up there, definitively dear, my heart on Earth is definitively clear.Wondrous starry night, we are one. Do I not sit trembling on a line of stars… as if it could break?Time, it is you, sleepy abyss that yawning mocks […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Hour of the Victim

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Hear the bell toll.It’s the hour of the victim.The bell tolls.What more must you sacrifice?You’ve been lying on the sacrificial tablefor many years.Even lying on a sacrificial tableis no pain.What more must you sacrifice?You love still, you love still,say no […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Fragment of a Mood

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I.Wind, wind, wind!Sprinkle roses and daffodils from the garden of my memory,where my young dreams roam.The wall of the mountains stands tall,the highland sun shines wildly on my locks.Empty garden, do you give no answer?– – – – – – […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Dionysos

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Oh Dionysos, you come from the distant heavenly spaces with the horses of the sun.The Earth waits teary-eyed like a woman in prayer.Oh Dionysos, Dionysos!over our heads we hear the roar of the hooves of your horses.Liberation, liberation,sing the fresh reins.Oh […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Sister, My Sister

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Sister, my sister, you are still small,but have long since seen God,blessed is your brow, oh how it shines.Since you saw God you have avoided people.You sat down lonely among the trees,but the brook went silentand the birds no longer sang.The […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Godchild

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

The godchild sat with me.The golden lyre sang under my hands.The god-child stare towards endless twilight hours.The song circles around her head with outstretched wings.What do you see in the song?It is your own future risingout of frozen twilight hours,your […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Something Inexplicable Is Approaching Us

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Who can love you, sister?Won’t a god with darkened face embrace you with his arms?Doesn’t he stand at the foot of the bed when you doze?Shall our eyes see him, sister?Didn’t we live in the fairytale, where everything impossible is […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Sister

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I once had a sister, a golden child.In the city she disappeared for me in the masses. If I among black coniferssee the young birch shake its golden locksI then remember my sister. Does she stand wide-eyed among the treeswith beating heart,does […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: All the Echoes in the Forest

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

No, no, no shout all the echoes in the forest.I have no sister.I am lifting her white silk gown as I walkand dye it powerlessly.I kiss you, my suffering I place in you,thoughtless loom,do you remember her rosy limbs?Her shoes […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: I Believe In My Sister

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

In walk in the desertand sit lonely on the mountains,on the Devil’s rock,where sorrows have waitedfor thousands of years.I have a sister.The elf-girls wove her silk garments,the moon virgin sprinkled dew on her breasts…She is delightful… desired by gods. Oh […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: In the Darkness

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I didn’t find love. I met nobody.Trembling I passed Zarathustra’s grave in the autumn nights:who on Earth listens to me anymore?Then an arm were laid lightly around my waist –I found a sister…I took her golden locks –is it you, […]

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  • 30 after thoughts
  • divisive / dismissive / missive
  • Light Requires Darkness
  • Seen From a Distance People Lose Their Eyes
  • De spor man efterlader sig
  • Confessions of the Cold Light of Dawn
  • What Bits of Peace My Life’s Ensured
  • Poems Inspired by Paintings
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