Mark making

Mark making

Day 21: Find a poem in a language that you don’t know, and perform a “homophonic translation” on it - try to translate the poem simply based on how it sounds. Interesting idea,  frustrating in practice! 

 The poem i choose referred several times to 'vinger' and 'maerk'. Here's what emerged from the gobbledygook - pure fantasy although I'd like to have been able to see the imagined canvass! The poem which inspired it follows below.

 At the easel I raise my arms
Poised like a conductor in the pause before the first note, 
Then leave a mark, a blurry smut
Daring to be careless, carefree, 
Fuzzy fingerprints all over the canvas
Bare-fingered smears, 
Smudged charcoal from the fire
Ochres and umbers from the earth.
I dare to let go, make violent streaks
Freed from the precision of a brush 
This feels elemental, a release, 
A return to a time before I cared so much
About capturing a likeness. 
© Copyright 2020. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved 








At sove i dine arme
er lige så mærkværdigt og smukt
som at være kejserlig
fuglefænger i en eventyrverden
hvor alle ting har vinger
og flyver frem og tilbage mellem hinanden
fordi de synes det er skægt at flyve
og fordi de elsker at blive fanget
og sluppet løs igen
så de rigtig kan nyde deres vinger
deres purpurrøde og sølverne
og smaragdgrønne og gyldne vinger
i det eventyrlige, violette tusmørke
hvor du ligger ved siden af mig
som en stær der er styrtet til jorden
våd og forpjusket, med sine fjer
og øjenlåg limet til af søvnens hvide valmuelim.
© Henrik Nordbrandt
From: Udvalgte Digte
Publisher: Gyldendal, Copenhagen, 1984

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