Swedish Poetry 1
From What I would like to do (have) Not, for exam
ple, go somewhere, really Not go out and walk. Not go through my whole life again (sooner die) Not, for example, take a bath, anyway not now although it’s about time, would feel good to have done with it, get soaped all over and scrubbed all over and rinsed off. I’ve got no patience with all my goddamned body parts. /…/ I’m so fed up, so sick and tired of stuff; don’t want to throw things out, but I do it again and then dig them out of the garbage again. And the stuff you don’t buy yourself, they give you as a present! /…/ I should feel like helping someone. That’s what I should do. Babysit or take care of someone’s dog. Help some old person to the toilet. Oh God! I’ve had enough of kids and the old, the whole shit but mostly enough of myself, of course. /…/ Sonja Åkesson, from Ljuva sextital (Sweet Sixties), 1970 Translated by Eva Claeson Sonja Åkesson Sonja Åkesson made a point of honesty. And from a linguistically aware perspective the most honest, the truest, poem is the one that does not pretend to portray reality as a complete whole, but questions instead its own omnipotence. Sonja Åkesson’s writing /…/ is full of devices that create multiplicity, a plurality of voices and uncertainty /…/. Amelie Björck, from the biography Sonja Åkesson (2008) Sonja Åkesson (1926-1977) Ljuva sextital (Sweet Sixties, 1970) There is still a great deal of inspiration to be found in Sonja Åkesson’s bracing and plucky poems. Many younger Swedish poets have turned to them, and that is a good thing, as the poems have retained their topicality. Concealed behind a nonchalant address is a passionate commitment, powered by an uplifting energy that has been set free of aggression and swearwords. In the poems, irony becomes an armour-bearer that makes possible the collision of the everyday with surrealistic imagery. The human being is rehabilitated, with all her imperfections intact, and her dignity is restored in these patently feminist poems. Selected Collections of Poetry: Situationer (1957) Husfrid (1963) Ute skiner solen (1965) Strålande dikter – nej så fan heller (1967) Ljuva sextital (1970) Dödens ungar (1973) Hästens öga (1977) 33 SWEDISH POETRY