I have given the Icelandic version of this poem first, because as Bergrún says it is very much an Icelandic poem and she wrote it in Icelandic before translating it into English, see below.
Ég er föl
og hvergi
í mjólkurkenndri sól
á sunnudagsmorgni
í blómanáttbuxum
með varalit
og pönnukökur,
skortur
og nægja
í von
og draumórum
ég er kyrrstæð,
hreyfingarlaust
samheiti
yfir tunglið
tásurnar mínar
bráðnandi
í baðkerinu.
*************
November
I am pale
and nowhere
in milky tea sun
and Sunday morning,
in flowery pyjama pants
with lipstick
and pancakes,
in lack
and lack
and satisfaction,
in hope
and fantasy
I am stationary,
a motionless simile
for the moon
thawing my toes
in the bathtub.
Poet’s Comment: Bergrún says of this poem…’November was published in the book Konur á Ystu Nöf. (Women on the Edge). Perhaps if I wanted southern hemisphere readers to connect to it, it should be titled June, as it was written in the monochrome midst of November in Iceland.’
Bio in Brief:
Bergrún Anna Hallsteinsdóttir Stocker (1986-) was born and raised in Takaka, Golden Bay and is of Icelandic/New Zealand heritage. After finishing a bachelor of arts in political science and gender studies she moved to Iceland to better acquaint herself with her family and culture there. She has worked as a music writer for Icelandic newspaper The Reykjavík Grapevine and in 2013 published her first collection of poetry, titled Stofumyrkur (or Living room Darkness in English) under the publishing house Partus Press. In addition to this she has been published in the 2003 New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology Something to Expiate and in the Partus Press collections Ljóð í Leiðinni: Skáld um Reykjavík (Poetry in Motion: Poems about Reykjavík) and Women on the Edge (Konur á Ystu Nöf). She is currently a student at the Icelandic Academy of Arts, studying towards a BA in visual arts where she regularly uses her poetry in combination with performance, video, sculpture and installations.
An example of her art…the performance work, Buried, appears below. Bergrún, herself is actually buried beneath the objects. if you click on the photo and look carefully to the bottom right you can actually see her toes sticking out.
The poems and art are published here with permission. Thank you Bergrún. It’s been a real pleasure to have you as my guest. To see more of Bergrún’s work, click on Older Posts at bottom of this page.
Please return to the Tuesday Poem Hub Page where Kathleen Jones is this week’s editor with a stirring poem by Pascale Petit. And do check out the wonderful selection from other Tuesday Poets in the left hand sidebar.
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