NORWEGIAN POETS, PART ONE

Paal-Helge Hauge

was born in 1945, in the small village of Valle, Setesdal. He studied medicine, but he wasn't to become a doctor. Even as he studied, he was working on oriental poetry. In 1965 he introduced Japanese poetry to the Norwegian people. The year after, in 1966, he released a collection of oriental poetry, called Chinese Poetry. Also, in 1970 he was the co-releaser of an anglo-american anthology of pop-poetry. His own original first came in 1967. It was called: På botnen av ein mørk sommar. (Approx: At the bottom of a dark summer).

Clearly, the short, close-up intimacy of oriental literature had a profound effect on his own work. The Japanese Haiku, for instance, is a major source of inspiration to Haugen. Even so, his greatest success as a writer came as a novelist, not as a poet. Anne, 1969, for instance, was one of his major successes. The book was awarded several prizes, and it was also dramatised for radio. This short novel is the first Norwegian novel where the better part is "ready made", e.g. the use of documentary material.

Finally, an example of how the Japanese Haiku-form could be exploited by a Norwegian poet: First the original excerpt of a text in Norwegian. Then an attempt at translation into English by yours truly!

N: det var seint då vi kom heim, den kvelden
huset bøygde seg djupare ned over seg sjølv
på trappa låg ein våt svart snegel

E: it was late when we returned home, that night
the house was bending deeper down over itself
on the stairs was a wet black slug

A final comment: Haugen's books have been translated into about 20 languages. Check, and you may find something interesting. In any case, the English editions should be relatively abundant.

(photo: Gerald Zørner)

(Arctic Fox jan 2011)