Extract 5 from Her, by Christine Kjellstrøm Melby

Translation

Her — Extract 5

every day the forest is darker
colder
you shower for a long time under the warm water
until the pressure loosens

Original

Ho — Utdrag 5

kvar dag er skogen mørkare
kaldare
du dusjar lenge under det varme vatnet
til trykket lausnar

Notes

  1. One could translate "kvar dag" to "each day", but "every day" feels more natural rhythmically.

  2. Literally, "lenge" would translate simply to "long", which is probably just about possible in English, but feels a little awkward; similarly, one could just about omit the "for" at the beginning of "for a long time", but again it does not quite feel right. The full "for a long time" seems the most natural choice.

  3. Though "loosens" is somewhat unusual in this context, "lausnar" is equally so in the original Norwegian; it is a rather literal translation, which in this case I feel allows for the most faithful rendering of the nuances of the poetry.

Sources

See Extract 1 for notes on the work «Ho» ("Her") from which the extract comes.

Extract 5 is from page 14 of my edition, the tenth page of the poem itself. It comprises the first four lines of that page.

Translated on the 10th of January 2023.

Last updated: 00:09 (GMT+1), 11th January 2023