Second Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Silent poetry reading
Från mars -79
Trött på alla som kommer med ord, ord men inget språk
for jag ut till den snötäckta ön.
Det vilda har inga ord.
De oskrivna sidorna breder ut sig åt alla håll!
Jag stöter på spåren av rådursklövar i snön.
Språk men inga ord.
(A quick and very unpoetic translation:
Fed up with everyone who comes with word, words but no language
did I go out to the island covered in snow.
The wild has no word.
The unwritten pages spread out in all directions!
I come by prints of deer hoofs in the snow.
Language but no words.)
My first encounter with this poem was when I was living in Krakow about seven years ago. I had just arrived and even though I didn’t know much Polish I bought the a newspaper every day to try to keep up to date. On day I found a notice about a poetry reading with Tomas Tranströmer and Czeslaw Milosz. I decided to go because I figured it be my one and only chance to see and hear a Nobel Price Laureate. The reading was wonderful even though I understood very little. The poem I entered in this (silent) reading was read in Swedish by Tranströmers wife Monica and I was instantly touched by it. I still am.
