Poems by Pär Hansson

​BIRCH AWAKE
 
The birch bracket is a decomposer
the birch cannot escape
the bracket lives on dead birch wood
the red ant keeps me awake
 
The ladybird tastes badly
the birch butterfly is hiding
in light and darkness
on the birch trunk
 
The birch leaves and the birch trunk
the sweet fern tastes of soil and liquorice
the sorrel keeps me awake
the birch cannot escape
 
The phenols of the leaves
defend the birch from parasites
I chew and swallow
chemical transformation
 
 
Translated from Swedish by the author and Peter Törnqvist
 

 
A STREAM
 
Cast a glance  
at the goldeneye, the grebe
a glance
at the heron
The reed belt quivers
on the other shore
You are the first human
you travel
towards the end
 
Would you like to be the flow
or become
the scheme for this flow
Would you like to follow
or let it all stream
against your shins
 
Silt, sediment               
dead wood
still exist
You are a human, you
contain multitudes
With the sun in your back
and streaming water up to your knees
you spot the whirligig beetle dance
inside your shadow
in the guts
 
It’s not too late
to pick up a black stone
from the bottom of the river
let the stone dry
brighten in your hand
 
 
Translated from Swedish by the author and Peter Törnqvist

 

​Pär Hansson was born 1970 in Vännäs, Västerbotten County, in Northern Sweden.
He has published six collections of poetry at Norstedts Publishing House: Ruckel/Hovel, Familjekista/Family Chest, Lavinflaggor/Avalanche Flags, Motorsågsminne/ Chainsaw Memories, Vi plockar bär i civilisationen/Berrypicking Poems and Kajak/Kayak. His works have been included in anthologies and published in literary magazines in Sweden and abroad, with translations in English, Estonian, Bosnian, French, German, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish and Malayalam. The spoken word is essential for his writing. Reading the poems out aloud in different spaces has been part of his poetic practice since his debut in 1998. He now lives in Stockholm where he organizes readings on his veranda and teaches creative writing at Folk University of Gotland. 2015–17 Hansson participated in Versopolis, an EU-supported network of poets and poetry festivals. He is a board member of Swedish Writers Union where he arranges translation workshops with Sami and Swedish poets.

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