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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

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • The Lowest Country
15 Feb, 202015

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: evening

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I complained –:greater than everything was my beloved –,greater than everything – and I went – an evening by the sleeping riverI remembered,that the song about the great loveis played most wondrously with two stickson a piece of wood –

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • The Lowest Country
15 Feb, 202015

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: my father

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

he staggeredand I caught his eyes –oh like wonderfully silenthelpless birds’ hearts they werewith the power of the great pain,which is art,shining in a glossy sea –o weakness assaulted me like a stormand I hit – a night, where one […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • The Lowest Country
15 Feb, 202015

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: Ellen

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

ellen –, not was it my intention –ellen, today I will cometo pick you –lay something on the deep woundstoday –, just today –I shall pick you –you shallwe’ll go and eat under the trees –I do not know where […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • The Lowest Country
15 Feb, 202015

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: the rain

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

the rain came –,and the men crouchedholding their rags of clothes up under their belliestheir backs blinking like oil pools in the nightand swayed back and forth,to pass the time –,their wet cheeks chewed sunflower-seeds,while the water ranand filled the […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • The Lowest Country
15 Feb, 202015

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: and god spoke

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

it was not god – the hands playedlike children in the dust of the road,and his eyes fluttered like white butterflies –and he whispered –: why do you hide your dreams-?why do you carry faces in front of your dreams […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • The Lowest Country
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: with closed eyes

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

it is as ifno stream can drown meno sorrow choke mecompletely –it is as iflove comes to meover all seas,because a soft chord always swaysinside me –

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • The Lowest Country
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: dedication

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

on the road my heartbecame too heavy to carryhere I laid this part of itat the roadsidebut this as well belongs to you –herethe place, where I last restedand had to lay this –this as well belongs to you –over […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: untitled

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

we are human –why blame each otherfor being nothing but –

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: Fröding

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

your quiet laughtermade the gnawing sinsand wasted lives of othersa merry dance on sun-green meadows – I see the despairing fight,which tore your own mind to shreds –, and I remain silent –

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: Spinoza

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

on your sharp tubercular facethe calm of wisdom lay in sad smiles – your goodnesswas the helpful humor of your racetrained under the hot caresses of the inquisition – your faithhad the strength of clarityand the mildness of understanding –

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: the only one

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

– my beloved is beautiful –she awakens with her beautythe lurking tiger of my desire,and wipes the foam off its mouthwith the hands of her beauty –– my beloved is strong –she bathes my wounded limbsin the strong sea of […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: medicine

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

to draw arabesques of wordsis the comfort of lovesick younglings – I will cut stonesand sleep – I make a fist of my hand in my pocketand push the hat backwards, and art is beautiful again –

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: thank

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

dear –,I do not know, if your mind carries hidden wounds,I do not know your light and your dark hours,not your everyday’s –, but your smiles – you took my unrest,you gave my searching body rest –by you I was […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: ideal

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I am only human,but one day I shalltear up the mountains of the earthand let them rattleby the ears of those who sleep –I am only human,but one day I shalltake the sun down from heavenand shine into all dark […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: generations

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

the words reached outlike willing hands towards us:waitsee, you are young,see your narrow shoulders,your unfinished features –see life stands timidlylike a stranger among you –hear the quick steps of your thoughts,when they flee each other,and wait –do you now let […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: for one

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

– you I dare not love –your vast softly-embracing lovelays down itself like oilon the restless sea of my youth – – while I still intoxicated sleepbetween your rocking limbs,you, laughing, emptymy quiver of arrows – – you I will not […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: nothing

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

– I sit reading – sometimes I look up – my thoughts roll ahead – slowly and unwillingly – soft like poison gas, which sucking glides along the earth – – I have some little wound – an irrelevant little […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: cheer

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I had seen so much large and high,that I wanted to run singing through the world,so people should turn aroundand understand, what I knew – and I ran – singing –and people turned around,but they understood nothing,for there were no […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: verse

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I sang to my beloved:how happy I am!I went and shot myself,in pain and agony –she thanked the lord,that I was happy –

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: plan

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

– I will build myself a house –I alone –I shall carry the stones myself –the sweat must sprout like hot springfrom my shoulders –the veins must lie like thousand-year-old treeson my brow –my house shall be big and tall:bigger and […]

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Poems

  • 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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