Lucas Moodysson's Poetry
Someone over at Html giant wondered about Moodysson's poetry (as I noted here some time ago he started out as a teenage poet wonder/terrible child). I'm doing some really tedious translation/editing of theory article so instead I will post a little excerpt from Moodysson's long poem "What Am I Doing Here":
...
my face is corroded by cancer
tony blair smiles and kisses anna lindh's cheeks
there's an ocean of distrust between me and that kiss
the world is upside down
the police in göteborg are forced to suspend
the schengen agreement in order to stop
those who are coming to sweden to protest
against among other things precisely the schengen agreement
julius plays with the pirate ship
emil screams ouch in the corridor
you fall down
i see the red hole in your thin body
i wish that i was there
i wish i could lift you up
and carry you away from there
i wish i could talk to you
i would tell you that it's not possible
to change the world with hate
one can only change the world with love
but i don't know
i'm not so sure any more
i walk along the street
i get an overdose of life and reality
the street stones rain over me
i have to shut my eyes
my eyelids are so thin
i tie emil's pokeman shirt
like a bind over my eyes
i dont' feel at home
i feel foreign
it feels like i'm 15 years old again
i wake up and the store is
gone and there is a new world
the tv lies
the newspapers lie
i'm at a party
i'm totally alone
the telephone is quiet
nobody is calling
...
...
my face is corroded by cancer
tony blair smiles and kisses anna lindh's cheeks
there's an ocean of distrust between me and that kiss
the world is upside down
the police in göteborg are forced to suspend
the schengen agreement in order to stop
those who are coming to sweden to protest
against among other things precisely the schengen agreement
julius plays with the pirate ship
emil screams ouch in the corridor
you fall down
i see the red hole in your thin body
i wish that i was there
i wish i could lift you up
and carry you away from there
i wish i could talk to you
i would tell you that it's not possible
to change the world with hate
one can only change the world with love
but i don't know
i'm not so sure any more
i walk along the street
i get an overdose of life and reality
the street stones rain over me
i have to shut my eyes
my eyelids are so thin
i tie emil's pokeman shirt
like a bind over my eyes
i dont' feel at home
i feel foreign
it feels like i'm 15 years old again
i wake up and the store is
gone and there is a new world
the tv lies
the newspapers lie
i'm at a party
i'm totally alone
the telephone is quiet
nobody is calling
...
posted by Johannes at 7:53 AM
5 Comments:
I think I prefer his minimalistic approach when it's applied to film, rather than this piece of writing. But then, I sometimes really like minimalistic cinema, but only occasionally like pared-down feeling writing.
Thanks for translating it, though.It was interesting to read.
(I just followed the link from htmlgiant.)
I shoudl mention that this is part of a very long poem in which the speaker shifts in and out of various points of view -- for example, a homeless guy in NY tricks a Swedish filmmaker named Lukas Moodysson etc.
The minimalism now that I read it in English feels strangely like Tao Lin plus politics.
Johannes
Really glad you did this--love that first line. I'm fascinated by this. Also wanted to let you know how mich I liked the Aase Berg translations for Black Ocean. All great stuff.
It's a shame I don't think (?) his poetry is in print any more - at least not in the UK. That extract didn't do a ton for me, but I'd be curious to read more. I remember being genuinely fascinated by the voiceover script in 'Container' at the time I watched it.(Though I'm not sure how I'd feel about it as just text on a page.) It's what made me curious about his poetry.
I don't think it's every been translated. The book I translated from has a lot in common with the Container script.
J
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