Translation Tuesday: from The Atlantic Grows by Julie Sten-Knudsen |
Translation Tuesday: from The Atlantic Grows by Julie Sten-Knudsen
The Guardian
2015-11-24
 ‘Welcome to the skin-coloured land…’ Photograph: Henrik Sorensen/Getty Images |
The fourth in a series on translated work features a poetic investigation of the relationship between two sisters who share the same mother and yet are divided – by their different fathers, their skin colour, and the Atlantic Ocean. Translated from Danish by Martin Aitken
By Julie Sten-Knudsen and Martin Aitken for Translation Tuesdays by Asymptote, part of the Guardian Books Network
In the light of the desk lamp
that is yellower than the daylight
the skin of my hand looks almost green,
almost red, with a golden wash.
It is not white.
The wall is white.
The used tissues
and the unpaid bills are white.
My hand has a different colour. The colour has a name.
I learned it when I was small. I used it
in the kindergarten, in the recreation club after school
when I needed a felt tip
in that indeterminable shade of pink
to draw a fleshy arm or a face:
I need the skin-coloured one.
There was no other use for that felt tip…
Read the entire poem here.
Tags: Julie Sten-Knudsen, Martin Aitken, The Guardian