excerpts from an unnecessary translation of Andri Snær Magnason's process poem
In my quest to find the ultimate Aarhus City poem I stumbled across Andri Snær Magnason's casually brilliant offering for the FRESH EYES project. He sets out the scope of his work below, so read the entries if interested. By the time I had translated half a dozen entries from the Danish (which had already been translated from his native Icelandic) I discovered Magnason had translated the whole thing into English himself for the hardback anthology. Not to worry, I still, absurdly, preferred my own translation in places and have hung on to some phrases in a desperate move to affirm myself. Magnason's awestruck entries on Yahya Hassan's precocious abilities as a visionary poet take on added poignancy since Hassan's early death.
...
Andri Snær Magnason
The Underground Crocodiles of Aarhus
(Naan Kalkar Danish Translator from Icelandic)
Jorinde & Joringel 2017
Task:
I set the alarm on my phone so it rings
When I hear the signal, I stop and try
to see something poetic and beautiful within precisely one minute.
(p7)
27 September 2015
21:10-21:11
Strange how I never talk with people
when I travel alone
I am always about to start a conversation
but get shy before I open my mouth
You never know where a conversation is going
I want to pretend to be a journalist
people will be on guard
if I say I’m a poet
but there goes the alarm
and I lack material
I ask where will you go?
I’m off to Aarhus
my name’s Coby
I come from Texas
I study geo-science
he shows me photos from the Faroe Islands
where he
herded sheep among the clifftops
“Did you know that there are crocodiles
in the basement under Aarhus University?”
It was good I asked
I need to see the underground crocodiles of Aarhus
(p17)
28. September 2015
9:10 – 9.11
I wake up in my bed at Godsbanen
I take a photo and send it to my wife.
My god! What has happened? she asks.
(p19)
28 September 2015
13:10—13.11
I sit at the cafe. I am reading Yahya Hassan.
I feel this strange envy of how a 17 year-old
can write something like this.
I feel this old shame of my happy childhood
the poetic angst of having nothing to say
I think about my happy 17 year-old self
an innocent son of a doctor and nurse
living in a good neighbourhood
with nice friends and a full set of wonderful grandparents
I wonder how my life looked in block capitals
MY PARENTS CAME HOME FROM
FLORIDA TODAY FROM A MEDICAL
CONFERENCE AND MOTHER
SAID HELLO AND I SAID HELLO
MOTHER DID YOU HAVE FUN
AND SHE SAID IT WAS GREAT
AND HOW WERE YOU?
AND I GOT GOOD GRADES IN THE EXAMS.
(p25)
28. September 2015
17:10—17:11
I found a good place to sit
The Lightning Factory, now closing
I feel like the task with ‘the fresh eyes’ is too difficult. The Lightning Factory is exemplary
The Museum is exemplary. The streets are well-kept and exemplary
The only thing I get fresh eyes for are my home streets
I am going home to my hospital bed
I have no plans for the evening
I will sit in my hospital bed and read Mount København
Naipaul once said he wished he had three lives
One to live, one to write and one to live
this evening I will use time on the first one
I actually need four lives, one to write, one to read
one to live, and one to do the washing up and drive
the children to ballet classes.
(p33)
29. September 2015
10:10—10:11
I am midway through Mount København
by Kasper Colling
when I stumble upon the icebergs by the harbour
the icebergs of Aarhus
I know that only 10% of an iceberg
is visible
I imagine all the floors
200 metres down under the harbour
with the drone of ships that sail by
high up above them
I wonder if they have windows
on the lowest floors
and how it must be to look up
under the container ships all the way up
as if they were sailing in the sky.
(p37)
29 September 2015
11:10—11:11
From the icebergs I can see the giraffes*
by the harbour
the Copenhagen Mountain, the icebergs in Aarhus
Legoland and windmills
the Danes understand the need to compensate for what lacks in their landscape
from the iceberg I can see the giraffes
and consider how they have evolved
they must pluck things from giant trees
I wonder how that would look
down from the lowest levels in the iceberg
and I still wait
to see the underground crocodiles
(p39)
*'I have seen the giraffes' is a Danish idiom which describes the experience of doing the essential tourist activity for the sake of being able to say that you've done it., e.g. going to Paris and visiting Notre Dame.
4 October 2015
14:00—14:01
I got a phone call from the Zoology Institute
he will show me
the underground crocodiles of Aarhus at 16:00
my uncle John was a great crocodile expert
born and raised in New Jersey
educated in Florida
working all over the world
I was always on my way over to him
with his research in the Amazon
but now I get a small opportunity
there is an underground Amazon in Aarhus
4 October 2015
15:10—15.11
I finally find the Arabian market. The Sultan’s Bazaar
Dubai Supermarket, the halal meat, the strange
smells, the tasty lamb, the tasteless bling
of LCD lights and interior design
I think about the boys and young men
I saw at the train station following
the Red Cross person
people stare at them
think of them as underground
crocodiles
I think about the ever-moving world
about the Syrian poet I met in Göteborg
he has lost 52 friends he said
I think about our history and
our wars and our movements
and I think of the Earth’s history
he ever-moving tectonic plates
the moon that stirs the oceans
the movement that brings renewal
energy, the forces of wind
and earthquakes and creation
and destruction and the clash of ideas and values
the forces of life that create something like the
book I am reading by Yahya Hassan.
(p59)
...
A FULL ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY THE AUTHOR CAN BE FOUND IN THE FRESH EYES ANTHOLOGY 2017
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