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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 Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Parade of Horror

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Courage is the highest, I tell you.God’s angels fight with us,God’s kingdom stands on our strong side.Unfold your red heartso you can see the shining engraving.The angels grasp our banners. What parade, horrific as if you yourself were led to […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Storm

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Now the Earth envelops itself in black again. It is the stormwhich rises out of nightly ravines and lonelydances its ghost-dance over the Earth.Now humans fight again – phantom against phantom.What do they want, what do they know? They’re herdedlike […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: My Artificial Flowers

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

My artificial flowersI send home to you.My small bronze lionsI place by your door.Myself, I sit at the foot of the stair –an Eastern pearl lostin the roaring sea of the great city

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: In the Hammock of the Fairies

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Nights and daysI lay in the hammock of the fairiesand dream of strange things.The heart was never born who could love me:he will never overstep the threshold of reality.Diana’s lampshines through my nights’thin fairytale mist.I cannot love, I cannot give up my […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: First I Will Climb Chimborazo

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

First I will climb Chimborazoin my own countryand stand there breathlesswith the wreath of victory. Later I will climb the mountain of famewhich the golden fields of the world smile at,and stand there blessedin rosy visions. In the end I’ll […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Road to Elysium and Hades

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

From the mountain of fateyou clearly see where the road goesto Elysium and Hades. Down there wanderpeople in a mist,they laugh and cryand follow coffins to the grave –all in a dream. Oh how I long for the placewhere you […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Rose Altar

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I don’t look like you,for I am more than you. I am in the duska temple priestess,consecrated I guardthe fire of the future– – – – – – – – I step out in front of youwith a message of joy:The […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: God Is Still Awake

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

What is wrong with me?– The notebook for my publisher– then all is well.The moon rises – my longing goes to bed.My longing throws itself on the bedand laughs infernally:God is still awake –blessed sleepless angels around his throne!

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Hope

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I will be straight-forward –therefore I don’t care for noble stylesand roll up my sleeves.The dough of the poem swells…Oh, what a sorrow –.to not be able to bake cathedrals…The greatness of the forms –the goal of the persistent longing.Present-child,is […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Orpheus

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I transform the snakes into angels.Raise your heads! Rise onto your tails!A second… and nobody hisses anymore.Blessed they lay at my feet,intoxicated by dreams, and kiss the folds of my cloak.I touch the lyre. A wind passes over the Earth,silent, […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Why Was Life Given To Me?

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Why was life given to meto rush past everybody in the chariot of triumph,unachievable, fast as fate,unconscious and without will,in perpetual longing? Why was life given to meto, with hands decorated with rings,to grasp the beaming bowlI conjured upin steady […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Fragment

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

– – – – – – – – – –– – – – – – – – – –– – – – the germs of life thrive on your slimy skin.Skywards striving city, you haven’t broken my heart:all your people […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: My Lyre

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I resent the thought…Where is my giant, beloved lyre?The sunshine-stringed, magnificent, which hangs down from the clouds.Oh you my giant lyre,you hang over the world like a question mark.– – – – – – – – –When I dieI’ll throw […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Bard’s Song

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Mysterious moon!In an hour you rise –and golden everythingwith African fantasies.I stand with the lyrein the darkness of the yard.The King’s daughter in the towerthrows stars to me.The wood lake smiles suddenly –Oh, pearls, gold and silver! –the capes layas eternal […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Characteristic

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Is God unfaithful?Does he chase his boldest angels from Heaven?No – I say:He gave me honey and wormwood.The tough, dark mass I poured out on the ground. The form lasted.He gave me a dark red rose –the smallest in the […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Am I a Liar…

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Am I a criminal, my sin is great…Am I a jest, am I with holy things…Am I a liar, let me then plummet from Heavenand be crushed on your square. Am I a liar –then let unholy spirits bury my […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Don’t Collect Gold and Jewels

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Humans,don’t collect gold and jewels:fill your hearts with longing,that burns like red-hot coals.Steal the rubies from the angels’ gazes,drink the cold water of the devil’s pool.Humans, don’t collect treasurethat make you beggars;collect richesthat give you royal power.Gift your children a […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Dawn

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I shine my light over all of the Atlantic…Unknown worlds, nocturnal landswake towards me!I am the cold dawn.I am the merciless goddess of the dayin misty grey veilswith the blinking helmet of the early morning.Light, light my winds run over […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Most Beautiful God

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

My heart is the most beautiful one in the world.It is holy.Whoever sees itmust themselves shine with its glow.My heart is light as a bird,the most fragile form on Earth.I sacrificed itto an unknown god.The god highest up in the […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The September Lyre
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: At Nietzsche’s Grave

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

The great hunter has died…I drape over his grave warm flower carpets.I kiss the cold rock and say:here’s your first child in tears of joy.Chuckling I sit on your gravelike an insult – more beautiful than you dreamt.Enigmatic father!Your children […]

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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
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