18 et 19. Eighteenth and nineteenth residents, for a month and a half, from the 15th of September until the 27th of October 2014:
Linda Vilhjàlmsdottir, and her husband Mörður Árnason.
Linda Villhjàlmsdottir is an Icelandic poet, born in Reykjavík in 1958.
Her work has been published, and translated in journals, magazines and anthologies since 1982 (Germany, England, Sweden, France, Spain...)
Five books of her poems have been published in Iceland between1990 and 2006:
-Blàþràður (A thin thread), in 1990
-Klakabörnin (The Ice children), in 1992
-Valsar úr siðustu siglingu ( Waltz from my last sailing), en 1996
-Öll fallegu orðin (All the beautiful words), in 2000
-Frostfiðrildin (The snow butterflies), in 2006
and a novel, Lygasaga (A story of lies), in 2003.
Linda Villhjàlmsdottir was invited in many International Poetry Festivals in Germany, England, France, Finland, Holland, Sweden, China, Columbia and... Iceland.
She has been working in 2014, and will go on working in 2015 on 3 different projects:
- a collection of poems titled: Frelsi (Freedom), in 4 chapters
- a script of a TV program/TV film in collaboration with film director Vera Sölvadottir (working title : « Life after Death »)
… and what could be - perhaps, and not only - her main writing aim while at HÖFN: :
a memory book about her childhood/youth in Reykjavík:
the Sixties in Iceland, as Reykjavöik is being built very fast, becoming a "real town":
the swamp surrounding her house, then the many new self-built houses,
the people, mothers, fathers, grand parents, siblings, cousins, friends, neighbours,
the home life, the food, the clothes, the games, the toys, the school, the summer camps,
the merchandise, the new neibourhoods, , the army barracks,
the gravel, the asphalt, the cars, the camping, etc...
What will come out of this rough material? Where to begin?
Write about different things in different styles, ans see where it leads...
About Mörður Arnason
Mörður Arnason studied Icelandic language, and Linguistics (Reykjavík, Oslo, Paris),
He has been a journalist, a publisher, a Minister Councelor, a Socialist MP(2003-13).
He works now free lance on cultural and political records.
Hallgrímur Pétursson*'s PSALMS, with Mörður Arnason's comments, will be published in March 2015.
(*Hallgrímur Pétursson is the most famous 17th century poet in Iceland)
Mörður Arnason hoped during his staying at HÖFN in Marseilles, with a pinch of optimism (sic!):
- to bookproof the PSALMS,
- to translate from Swedish a booklet, an introduction to Modern Socialism,
- to read few books/articles by the Greats of French dictionnaries(Larousse, Robert etc...).
Just before leaving, Linda, as well as Mörður wished to give HÖFN an "offering",
and left indeed a powerful trail marking their staying in Marseille (as the snails they so much and closely watched in HÖFN garden!).
- Linda Vilhjàlmsdottir chose to offer us a narrative (in Icelandic of course) that she had written before her residence at HÖFN,
which was translated by Dominique Poulain, the Association et Residency HÖFN coordinator.
- Mörður Arnason, that Marseille did grip, who had been searching into the literary and poetic history of "our" Northern districts,
discovered (among others) the symbolyst poet Saint-Pol-Roux.
You too will therefore discover one of his poems: Ave Massilia, in French to begin with, and its translation in Icelandic by Mörður.
Here, just below, Linda Vilhjàlmsdottir's text: Mýrin
... and its translation in French: Le marécage (The swamp)
... a translation that could not have been without Mörður's invaluable help,
his remarks, his insight, his subtle knowledge of French language, his suggestions,
his questions, his erudition as an Icelandic and a Reykjavík native, his patience AND HIS HUMOUR!...
not anymore that it would have been really completed without some indispensable clarification from the author herself, Linda Vilhjàlmsdottir
(about descriptions of landscape, housings, specific terms (for example the difference between mannaskitur and kúkur... but not only!)
WITH MANY THANKS TO THEM! Dominique
files/traductionlemarecage.pdf
This little photomontage around Linda Vilhjàlmsdottir's text and its translation is made from pictures
that I had the cheek to crop sometimes, I have to confess. Many of them were taken in Reykjavík, but not only,
(none actually in the area of the Nes- the Peninsula), between 1930 -1960.
They seemed though to reflect what I read (imagined, saw in my mind) and translated while immersing myself in The swamp (Mýrin)...
Dominique Poulain
Here, just below, Saint-Pol-Roux's poem, Ave Massilia and its translation by Mörður Arnason,
along with some translator's notes, specially meant for Icelanders!
