Swedish Poetry 1
Shallow Waters He. Red Young Man – Only a Boy – 1
2 years old. Red, and then this matter that he Steals. And that I (just like him) also Stole back then. 12 years old and completely red-burned from the sun – quiet, I feel it, that I have to be that: quiet… So I don’t say anything, just walk up to the corn on the cob in that wood bucket… These greasy corn on the cob – of which I will Steal three, or possibly four – which I now, just before I’m going to take them, don’t think are at all worth Stealing. I – still quiet, what I think just as quietly as back then. Just as sun-burnt, and 12 years still – will turn 13 later in July – and, as I’ve said, quiet. The same way he was quiet but he said things – he said them in a low voice, barely audible – I remained, one would have to say, quiet. I spoke so quietly. And he asked “What?” He probably couldn’t hear me – that’s how it was, but where were we? He. Or I. Or Red Young Sun. Or the shithouse-reeking greenery in which we lay and, both of us, ate corn on the cob Stig Larsson, from Matar (Feeds), 1995 Translated by Johannes Göransson STIG LARSSON Matar (Feeds, 1995) Stig Larsson has had a long and richly productive artistic career in numerous genres, including work as a film and theatre director. As a poet he reached his artistic zenith with Matar, in which he occasionally leaves the door ajar to a more autobiographical way of writing. It would also be his last collection of poems. With a fine ear for the capriciousness of spoken language, he creates a world is that is rather remote from that of current poetry. What appears to have been written in distraction turns out to convey great concentration, and the process often results in inspiration and presence in the moment. Larsson is also known as a provocateur and, now and then, he takes on controversial even SWEDISH POETRY offensive subjects. There is an honesty to what is written at the very edge that allows the poems to make greater demands on the reader, even heading for the domain of the essay. These irrationally written poems expand our understanding of what poetry can be and what it can achieve. Selected Collections of Poetry: Minuterna före blicken (1981) Den andra resan (1982) Händ! (1988) Ett kommande arbete (1991) Ordningen (1994) Matar (1995) 52