Week Three

Week Three: The Power of Sound

This is a prompt about sound, about mishearing, and letting the brain slur sound into meaning of some sort.  Below are two poems in Swedish by Ann Jäderlund.  As the timer runs, enact a “translation” based on the sounds or what you think the sounds are. 

Feel the rhythms. Roll the sounds on your tongue. Try two or three “translations” of each poem. One can be complete gobbledygook, but with two others try to introduce some sense into the words you interpret from the sounds. Detect some emotion. Move toward meaning. (If you speak Swedish, please find two other poems in some language you do not speak!)

Gråt inte sa min skugga. När vi gick förbi

i skogen. Gråt inte som du känner. Nästan

som en levande formel. Under skuggorna

vita svall. Du är kanske också förlåten.

Lukten av gråtvatten. Ankor och vattenpupiller.

Vem vill du vara nu? Och nu och nu och

senare åter? Häng med den ödsliga

armen. Häng med huvudet bakåt och gråt.

Again, take some time to look through our colleagues’ posts from the previous week, and comment on any that intrigue you.

And again, wait until the end of the week to look back at what you’ve done, and then post one or two of your “translations” that please you.

The purpose here to begin to relax into the pleasure of not-knowing, of non-sense, and into the spirit of discovery required of every act of creativity.