Field of the Gods

Settling In

Well, I've had rather an exciting week.

The weather's been a bit temperamental, alternating between glorious sunshine and blue skies, and rain - with little middle ground. I'm starting to feel a bit more settled in, making some new friends and reconnecting more with old ones. The Oslo Jazz Festival's on at the moment, and I've been to see a couple of performances. The first was a Jazz and Poetry evening, with two of Norway's leading poets, Lars Saabye Christiansen and Jan Erik Vold performing their poetry along with a jazz band. I went with my friend Gunaketu, who first introduced me to Vold's poetry. As you might know, for my MA project I'm translating a collection of Vold's poetry, Someone Called Abel Ek, into English, so it was quite a thrill to see the man himself. He's in his late sixties now, but he just exuded bright joyful creative energy. Here's one of the poems from Abel Ek I've translated, to give you a wee taste. (Asbjørnsen is well known in Norway for his work collecting and recording Norwegian folk tales.)


ABEL, WHILST THE WINTER TURNS

I walk wearing my beloved's
scarf and think
about voices
that don't

get here, I
sit on the top of Sankthanshaugen and see
the March light
over the city, together with

a three-quarter full moon
I see
the winter turn
over the roofs and steeples, a boat glides into

the fjord, the smoke from Slemmestad
rises
and I breathe warmly inside the double scarf
you left

me - everything we
try
to say, that doesn't get here, doesn't get here
in time, doesn't

get here in the way we'd hoped
it would
get
here. Whilst we carry on

talking, carry on
being silent, like an ambulance of silence, the A&E
for what we wanted
to say, where is it - and

what sort of
cross is it marked with: red
blue
or black? the snow on the ground

was white
when it fell and Asbjørnsen, with cane in hand
stares out towards
the pine grove and the merry

horn-blowers
in painted copper, tuba
round the neck - and further below: the city
chaos and joy, chaos and a

warm cup of cocoa here and there
like a plaster
on
what? the cop who presses the ring

into the finger bone
of someone who's
protesting, protesting that some old trees
should be able to stay where they

are, the punishment is pain until you faint
so that the link of the people trying to protect the trees
can be broken and people know
where it

belongs - that's the way it goes
here on Tellus, old
staring
satellite, you knew that didn't you.


On Friday I went to another concert in the Jazz Festival with some friends, in a kind of big cafe/pub in the city centre. And who should be sitting at a table there, but the man himself! I screwed up the courage to go and introduce myself and tell him that I was translating some of his work, and it was a real thrill to meet him. He gave me his address, so I'm going to send him the translation once it's finished...

Apart from that, I've been to see a few movies. The first was a Norwegian film called "High School Teacher Pedersen", which is based on a very famous Norwegian novel with the somewhat more elaborate title of "High School Teacher Pedersen's Story of the Great Political Awakening which has Afflicted our Land." It's about a High School teacher who tells his class about his involvement with the Norwegian Communist Party in the 1970's,and an extra-marital affair he had with one of his comrades. I haven't read the novel yet, but the film was really excellent - a beautiful portrayal of idealism and love that is gradually undermined and disintegrates.

The second was "Lonesome Jim", directed by Steve Buscemi. This is an ultra-low budget movie about a man in his late 20's who ends up moving from the big city back to his parents' house in the sticks in Indiana because he's broke and has nowhere else to go. The film basically follows his stuggle with the meaninglessness of existence in a charming but honest way. Lastly, this evening I went to see "The Squid and the Whale", which is a semi-autobiographical film about the break-up of a family. It's quite dark, but quite funny too and I thought it struck a really good balance between being too bleak and too flippant.

So all in all, I'm starting to feel a bit more settled in. I don't have a job yet, but hopefully that'll sort itself out in the next few weeks. There's several places that have said they'll likely give me work if they get enough students signing up to their courses, so I just have to wait for a couple of weeks and see what happens...

I started writing a kind of reflective piece to post here a few days ago, but after sitting writing for about 40 minutes, it suddenly disappeared from the screen without trace. (That'll teach me to save regularly...) Anyway, I decided just to regard that as the first draft, so the finished item will be along in a little while.

I think that's about all there is for the moment...

Peace and Love,

David

PS Check out my friend Vidyavajra's article about working in a Crematorium. It's at http://fwbo-news.org/features.html

posted by David @ 1:47 PM