1 I'm bold, I am. I'm not even afraid of dying. I cross the clearing, my shadow a king, small in size but skilful; for him too the drum-roll heralds death. Reflects our times, the speaker said raising his hand, and the leaves: it's autumn, then, and the leaves, rustling, take away the shadow, even the shadow of the king. 2 When the man went into himself, as if into a house, he left his outdoor clothes in the hall, turned on the light in his room and felt safe within himself and saw, not fearing even if he did see, summer fled, and with raised collar the man fled not looking up.
By Pentti Saarikoski
Translated by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah
From A WINDOW LEFT OPEN
by Pentti Saarikoski
Translated from the Finnish and with an Introduction by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah
Published by Norvik Press (2020)
Pentti Saarikoski was born in Impilahti (today part of Russia) on 2nd September 1937 and died in Joensuu on 24th August 1983. He came from a family of civil servants, politicians and entrepreneurs. His father Simo Saarikoski was a journalist and civil servant, while his mother Ella came from a family of bakers. The family moved to Helsinki after the war and Saarikoski began his studies (Roman and Greek Literature, Aesthetics, and Folk Poetry) in 1954. He never completed his courses, though he retained an interest in ancient cultures and translated Homer’s Odyssey into Finnish. He published his first collection of poems, Runoja (Poems), in 1958, and developed his distinctive participative style in later collections. As a young man Saarikoski was a Christian but he became interested in left-wing politics in the 1960s, joining the Communist Party in 1968. He became a cult figure, partly because of his self-stylization as a Bohemian artist. His alcohol abuse became legendary, and his private life was turbulent, involving four spouses and five children.
Emily Jeremiah is a writer, academic, and translator. She has published two selections of translated poetry, by Eeva-Liisa Manner and Sirkka Turkka, with Waterloo Press. She is also the author of two novellas, Blue Moments (Valley Press, 2020) and An Approach to Black (Reflex Press, forthcoming 2021).
Fleur Jeremiah is a native speaker of Finnish with wide experience in translating from Finnish, including non-fiction, children’s books, novels and poetry. She has collaborated with her daughter Emily on translations of modern Finnish poetry and of five novels, one of which, Aki Ollikainen’s White Hunger (Peirene Press), was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016.
Photo by Lisa Kalloo
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Read previous poems from Poetry Travels:
A FAREWELL TO MY DEAD CLASS by Irit Amiel, translated by Anna Blasiak and Marta Dziurosz
THE GIRLS IN BERGEN-BELSEN by Nora Gomringer, translated by Annie Rutherford
DECEMBER, by Jaume Subirana, translated by Christopher Whyte
ROSE RED, by Ulrike Almut Sandig, translated by Karen Leeder
*** (I D[R]IPPED MY PEN…) by Mario Martín Gijón, translated by Terence Dooley
WHAT COMES by Magda Cârneci, translated by Adam J. Sorkin and Mădălina Bănucu
TRANSLATION by Justyna Bargielska, translated by Maria Jastrzębska
*** (MY EYES, DENSE NIGHT…) by Gëzim Hajdari, translated by Ian Seed
One comment
Very interesting poem. Always good to meet new poets. Thank you!