Sense Violence (excerpt)
I drown in the day with a slowly rolling wave in my head The mundane :a gapAn undecided transparentgray atmosphere the concepts cannot reach Then I returnedGaze mute from all the impressions without meaning I won’t be here much longer High summer rain and blue eyes, one of which has darkened Charred Served as an oyster between lust and madnessSmall warm bodiesfall offlike pineconesor eggs Topple through a window let yourself hatch Not yet ready to fall The entire tree crown contorts from vertigo loses its fruit at the mere touchLose yourselfI say Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place
Feature Date
- August 6, 2020
Series
- Translation
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from SENSE VIOLENCE
Black Ocean Press
Copyright © 2020 by Helena Boberg
Translation © 2020 Johannes Göransson
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Johannes Göransson (b. 1973) is the author of six books of poetry including The Sugar Book, Transgressive Cirulation: Essays on Translation and the forthcoming memoir POETRY AGAINST ALL. He is also the translator of books by Aase Berg, Ann Jäderlund, Johan Jönson, Henry Parland, and Kim Yideum. He teaches at the University of Notre Dame and edits Action Books.
In this first full-length English-language translation of the work of Helena Boberg, we are powerfully confronted with what she has called “a creative testimony that points out patterns of injustice, sexism, and violence” in the society we inhabit. A book-length poem, Sense Violence hinges on the dichotomy of a masculine will to power and a call to action for a feminine collective to confront it on all corners—from mythologies to cultural tropes and ingrained hierarchies. Translated by Johannes Göransson, the English edition faithfully captures Boberg’s wordplay and linguistic richness bringing this urgent and uniquely-voiced work to a new audience.
“My favorite poet at the moment is Helena Boberg.”
—Aase Berg
“Boberg writes a rare blend of beauty and anger and vulnerability and irony that makes me repeatedly pick up the book and read the poems again.”
—Naima Chahboun, Expressen
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