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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
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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
  • naked human
14 Feb, 202014

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: i bake bread

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I bake large and hard breadsfor humanswith a sharp and acrid taste –it is not to make them full –it is to make them see,that others toomust force down the sharp mouthfuls,which tear like sand in the bowelsand which the […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: happiness

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

– happiness –,says humans –eats themselves fulland lay down two and two – – happiness –,they complain –and attempt to dream themselves fulland warm – – happiness –,humans rage –and the piles of food crawlfrom one side to the other […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: Inga

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

when I was ten years old,I walked on the beachand tightened my young musclesfor you, inga –I waded between stones –I carried heavy pointed stonesto your port, inga –I with my bare boy’s feetin the clear seaweed-flowering water –and you […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: saltwater

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

we lived in daysamong soaking wet, whipping sails –and black nightsin darkness and pouring water – we wore our hands to boneson stone-hard, biting ropes –and the muscles fought in despairwith arms-thick, steel-cold chains –then we laid hibernating for an […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: humor

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

wanted to go up to the stars –on the stars there is light and cool –gathered all my strength,and I jumped so that the world sang –the stars flew out to greet me –on the stars there is light and […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: autumn

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

it rains – rains –the air is grey and milky,the streets wet and cold,the humans paleand damp like sick birds,I walk and walk,while it just rains,hopelessly –the sky hangs like a dark wallbetween us and the sunand the heat.in the […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: but I have a brain

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

– if I had a brain,with a thousand needle-thin threads –– if I had a brain,as smooth as a newly peeled egg –– but I have a brain,which just barely can glimpsea light on a misty sky –too strong after […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: foam

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

– bareheaded I fished along the cliffs –the sun sprinkled burning needlesinto my naked hair – – when the storm has splintered the wavesagainst the cliffs,the foam lies rockinglike corks on the water,like a running girl’sshort warm breath – – […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: night

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

in the night we doubt – small weak humansin large empty houses –there is too much space in the night –we cannot fill the darknesswith known things – the anxietycreeps like ratswith long cold tailsout of black holes –anxiety for […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: why not?

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

why is it notlike a straight and well-kept roadat all?without too much traffic,without too much noise and dirt?why do we not standhigh up,at the one endand see the house, where we are going?without needing to ask,what kind of house it […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: formative years

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

our nightsdrowned in the song of wineand the laps of women – we hoped,that the force would come to uslike a stray dogand lay itself at our feet – to some of us came the longing –which tore our fates […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: for my head

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I am a child,playing with its toy –my toy:a ball with eyes on it – I roll itand throw it at the wall –I pat itand throw it into the water – perhaps in the endmy toy was broken –but a […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: the port

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

o, port –in your long, patient nightwe come,while our stepszigzagging forgets the seain favour of your street’s firm horizon – into your lap we throw,with the proud gesture of the rich,our stingily saved-up longing,the thought joys of our nights – […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: men

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

– the antelope turns its large eyes out in the nighttowards the rustling grass of the steppe,which carefully rises behind the glossy black hooves –– the eyes turn towards the grass,where the wind and the moon teasingly build antelope-enemies,and it flieswith […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: death

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

why we live –yes –it happens, that we are so happy, that we sing –perhaps we will be so joyful, so happy,that we will someday quietly walk away,out of anxiety for no longer hearing the youthful laughter of life –

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: for a young friend

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

words –it is the dummy the baby gets, so it doesn’t scream –words –it is the whore for those, whom nobody loves –it is the chair of the old man – do not make crumbs of the fresh bread of […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: the new human

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

truth –sparkling brains –the crystal-clear, exposing thoughtskill the stupid and dullwith painful scorn – strength –trembling muscles,held tightened by iron-hard will,way ahead of all others –hear, the shouting of the mass! dance –whirling legs –with slim necks and hips –rhythm, […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: the great man

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

he walks kickingwith giant-stepsand treads so hard on the ground –but the grass,it rises up again,where he placed his large foot,and the earth smiles, as if nothing happened,and the flowers think of other things – he walks roaring,with thunder-voice,so that […]

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

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: rest

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

the red suns turns small and distant,desire sinks like a limp rubber-animal –glued-together limbs loosenslowly bursting –happy smiles with eyes closed –timid kisses – not as a request,but as: how lovely it was –hair is brushed aside –the bodies push […]

  • Gustaf Munch-Petersen
  • naked human
13 Feb, 202013

Gustaf Munch-Petersen: grey

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

the grey iron bed,the faint grey-green lighton the matt grey door to number 14 – with fingers in tight yellow-grey skinthe nurse gives me my powder –my consciousness floats awayin a heavy, wooly mist – then I hear through the […]

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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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