Translated from the Icelandic by聽Meg Matich.聽
This is part of our special feature, New Nordic Voices.
FRAGILE THINGS
wet paper
tangled in birch branches
inside the window, smoking,
a woman with red hair
says to herself:
they can鈥檛 hear me anymore
irises
slip into the white
like burst egg yolks
the living room is heavy
on the carpet,
fragile things, scattered,
soaked in bile
she wraps them
cautiously
in old newspapers
and shoves them back
down her throat
FIRE MOTHER
They鈥檝e persisted
in watering me
for years
placed me on the window sill
stored me there
forgot me there
but it鈥檚 fine:
add fuel to the flames
it鈥檚 fine:
a woman is the pyre
BURNING SMELL
mom is turning into
an unanswered phone call
here are my limits
she says and chalks
a circle around herself
her embrace, once hot
now hardens
still, cinders slip
into her mail slot
often,
as if in tow
as if she herself bears the torch
that burns the bridge behind her
mom barks into the phone
like a chained dog
forbidden from moving closer
and when she does
she wants nothing but to comb
your hair, hold your hand
braid her long fingers
with your short ones
she asks you to sing her song
howls it out of an open car window
laughs: we鈥榬e not in tune
and she鈥榮 right
you鈥檙e off-key
you can鈥檛 grow up fast enough
she can鈥檛 calm herself down
Fr铆冒a 脥sberg (1992) is an Icelandic poet and reviewer. Her first collection of poems,聽厂濒颈迟蹿枚谤颈苍 (e.聽The Stretch Marks),聽was released by Partus Press in October, 2017. The collection was awarded the Icelandic Booksellers Choice Award for Poetry 2017, received the Grassroots Grant from the Icelandic Literature Center and was nominated for Fj枚ruver冒launin, The Icelandic Women鈥檚 Literature Prize in 2018. She is a member of the Icelandic poetry collective Svikask谩ld (e. The Imposter Poets) and writes occasionally for the聽Times Literary Supplement.
is a Reykjavik-based translator-poet. She鈥檚 received numerous awards for her work as a translator from organizations like the聽Icelandic聽Literature Centre,聽PEN America, and the聽Fulbright聽Commission, and has translated poetry for聽UNESCO.聽Cold Moons聽(2017 Phoneme Media) is her first full-length translation of聽T铆mi kaldra m谩na聽by Magn煤s Sigur冒sson. The work (EN/IS) has been 鈥榯ranslated鈥 into聽聽by composer David R. Scott.聽Her translations have appeared or are forthcoming in places like The Boston Review, Gulf Coast, Asymptote, and Words Without Borders. She is currently editing and translating an anthology of 32 Icelandic poets for The Caf茅 Review鈥檚 Summer 2018 issue.
Published on April 17, 2018.
