Aase Berg
translated from the Swedish by Johannes Göransson
Limbido
Flowers run
out of nothing
when it is
not ghost-hot
yet
*
The lightspider loads.
An unusual silence
fill the skies.
That which is going to happen
has already happened
What is this?
LITESBIDER BURNS IN THE SAND
Still ahead.
The dogs bark
and fights.
From here
it is fun
to see people.
DEM HAPY ABIMALS
The gasdust,
asphaltsmoke –
oilghosts
gasolinepropane terodactyle
ruusssssssssssccccchhhhles
COLORHAPPI TIGERS
Now I run
and gather pretty gravel:
ovals,
chrystals
and dimdiamonds
Now I run
following the clatter
of raywhite
featherwater
The dustsmoke growls.
THE LITESBIDER BURNS IN THE SAND
It’s especially lovely
when a door
goes shuts
slowly –
a window sings
as the eons
travel through it
FEATHER MONKYS
The shoulder no longer
falls into
the leg’s speed.
A breaking
of the earth’s writhing
wobbles.
FLOWER CAMELS
Can never appear
out of nothing
can only
go hand
out of hand
HUG ADN KIS FISH
An enclosed
hollow body
in a filled body
It lays there
and lives
in a nutritional
nothing:
”hug and kis fish”
A WONDERFUL MACHIRADE
Many people
have trouble understanding
a ship
of iron
The oversoundspider’s
continual
upforce –
THE LITESBIDER BRUNS IN THE SAND
Being alive
alive being
whirls wheel
in burnheavy thicksand
tornador
torn adore
FIREWREAK ZEBRA
Don’t be scared
don’t be scared
Only second
in the tunel mouth
PERL BUTERFLY
The silence
in lightlight –
that it can rock
so elephantically
GLITER DOV
Early on everything happens
in a very rapid succession
like a connected
montone
tone
LOVELY LITESBIDER
Dusty
foot
moving
still
COLORS BEAR
CLOUD LION
COOL DRAGONFLIES
For two seconds everything stopped.
It is still stopped.
It will remain stopped.
It is still coming
__________
Aase Berg: on June 14, 2006, I received a letter from Benjamin Buchholz, an American soldier in Iraq who had read Johanne Göransson’s translation of my book Uppland:
“My second day at war here in Iraq I was sent to the scene of a traffic accident where a truck in a US convoy ran over and killed a six-year-old Iraqi girl. A truck driver threw a water bottle to this girl from the window of his truck. She ran out into the road to retrieve it and was hit by another convoy passing in the opposite direction. This event was the first traumatic unveiling of the horror of war for me, and probably for several of my soldiers.”
Buchholz asked me to contribute to an anthology called The Dust Girl which was supposed to feature texts by 33 authors, each one writing from the perspective of different people (or animals) that were present at the site of the accident. He asked me to write the girl’s voice. The task fell into my work with Loss: the perspective in Limbido is the dead girl’s.
(tr: Johannes Göransson)
translated from the Swedish by Johannes Göransson
Limbido
Flowers run
out of nothing
when it is
not ghost-hot
yet
*
The lightspider loads.
An unusual silence
fill the skies.
That which is going to happen
has already happened
What is this?
LITESBIDER BURNS IN THE SAND
Still ahead.
The dogs bark
and fights.
From here
it is fun
to see people.
DEM HAPY ABIMALS
The gasdust,
asphaltsmoke –
oilghosts
gasolinepropane terodactyle
ruusssssssssssccccchhhhles
COLORHAPPI TIGERS
Now I run
and gather pretty gravel:
ovals,
chrystals
and dimdiamonds
Now I run
following the clatter
of raywhite
featherwater
The dustsmoke growls.
THE LITESBIDER BURNS IN THE SAND
It’s especially lovely
when a door
goes shuts
slowly –
a window sings
as the eons
travel through it
FEATHER MONKYS
The shoulder no longer
falls into
the leg’s speed.
A breaking
of the earth’s writhing
wobbles.
FLOWER CAMELS
Can never appear
out of nothing
can only
go hand
out of hand
HUG ADN KIS FISH
An enclosed
hollow body
in a filled body
It lays there
and lives
in a nutritional
nothing:
”hug and kis fish”
A WONDERFUL MACHIRADE
Many people
have trouble understanding
a ship
of iron
The oversoundspider’s
continual
upforce –
THE LITESBIDER BRUNS IN THE SAND
Being alive
alive being
whirls wheel
in burnheavy thicksand
tornador
torn adore
FIREWREAK ZEBRA
Don’t be scared
don’t be scared
Only second
in the tunel mouth
PERL BUTERFLY
The silence
in lightlight –
that it can rock
so elephantically
GLITER DOV
Early on everything happens
in a very rapid succession
like a connected
montone
tone
LOVELY LITESBIDER
Dusty
foot
moving
still
COLORS BEAR
CLOUD LION
COOL DRAGONFLIES
For two seconds everything stopped.
It is still stopped.
It will remain stopped.
It is still coming
__________
Aase Berg: on June 14, 2006, I received a letter from Benjamin Buchholz, an American soldier in Iraq who had read Johanne Göransson’s translation of my book Uppland:
“My second day at war here in Iraq I was sent to the scene of a traffic accident where a truck in a US convoy ran over and killed a six-year-old Iraqi girl. A truck driver threw a water bottle to this girl from the window of his truck. She ran out into the road to retrieve it and was hit by another convoy passing in the opposite direction. This event was the first traumatic unveiling of the horror of war for me, and probably for several of my soldiers.”
Buchholz asked me to contribute to an anthology called The Dust Girl which was supposed to feature texts by 33 authors, each one writing from the perspective of different people (or animals) that were present at the site of the accident. He asked me to write the girl’s voice. The task fell into my work with Loss: the perspective in Limbido is the dead girl’s.
(tr: Johannes Göransson)