Greenland
Poems
Short introduction of Iris Garnov
Iris Garnov is a well known Danish author. She has written books for both adults and children. In much of her writing she is using her experiences from her own childhood and adolescence. She has written the autobiography "En utrolig historie" which in English translates to "An Incredible Story". In 2008 she published a collection of poems from Greenland.
I have translated a few of the poems into English to show them to my foreign family. Iris Garnov has granted me the permission to publish the translations on our website.
From the book I quote Iris Garnov's preface: "As far back as I can remember my dad, who had never been outside Zeeland, told me stories about Greenland. At the age of seven, I was separated from my dad, but not from my dream of Greenland. The childish longing for the lost country became the longing for knowledge of the adult. The real Greenland offered me much more than that. This small book is my thankyou to Greenland".
At a climate conference Iris Garnov participated in, she recited the translated poems. She told me later, that she received much applaus for the poems.
Hans Bruun-Jensen
Table of contents
Shopping on the Board
With over stretched legs
And arms easily reaching the ground
The common seal is gracefully cut into pieces
Tempting, the pieces are placed on the board
For sale
The old little woman
Whose face belongs to the past
Has brought a plastic bag with holes
The head of the seal is her aim
As she walks away
One wondering eye of the seal peeps through a hole in the bag.
This Cycle
By the stream the broad look of the musk ox
And fur hanging burdensome to the ground
We size up each other for a while
Then I turn my eyes on the fiord of ice
The broad crevice formed by water and ice
As the glacier lets unceasingly gush
Expires intermittently black cold mist
On each thousand-year-old reborn floe
Stillness embraces me though noise is great
When the glacier roars in calving,
Is this cycle predestined I wonder
Is this roar of birth the trembling of life itself.
Ice Dance
The ice dance of mountain tops
In front of the dawn-red backdrop
Fades away and beautifies
The brutality of night.
Rooted
The light retains the stillness
The cairns measure the time
I watch the open graves
Or is it the other way around
Freely rooted to this place
I feel the stillness
Penetrate into the core of sorrow
- And of joy.
Graceful Walk in Sealskin Boot
Graceful walk in sealskin boot
In everyday seal
The harsh snow-light of sun
Shatters in deep-black hair
And mirrors time long passed
Travels
Long travels
With sledge and dog
The voice of a child laughs away the dreams
Graceful walk in sealskin boot
In everyday seal
Pulling a plastic sledge
With the happy small child
Waiting at the stop
Travels
Short travels
With the buss in Nuuk.
Author and copyright: Iris Garnov. Translator: Hans Bruun-Jensen