Gunnar Björling (1887–1960) was arguably the most radical
Finland-Swedish modernist poet, yet he was also, in some ways, the one
who adhered most to the poetic tradition. Born in Helsinki, Björling
studied philosophy, struggling to find an outlook on life that could
carry him through it. After working briefly as a schoolteacher, he began
writing poetry full-time, living a life more or less in poverty in a
Helsinki basement overlooking the sea. Björling was an outcast partly
on account of his homosexuality, the practice of which was legally a
crime throughout his lifetime. Though his poetry was seen as obscure
and incomprehensible by the general public, he had many friends and
supporters, not least a number of younger poets and other
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artists from all over Scandinavia, some of whom regularly visited him
in his basement.
Björling's debut, Vilande dag (Resting day), a book of prose poems
and aphorisms, was published in 1922. He published another twenty books of
poetry, the last one, Du går de ord (You go the words), in 1955. At
one point, in the late twenties, he labeled his poetry "Universalistic
Dada-Individualism," and from the early thirties elaborated a poetic
practice sometimes referred to as "leaving out parts of sentences,"
or "breaking up the syntax." Bengt Holmqvist's account, from a 1949
introduction to Björling's poetry, is more nuanced: "On the whole, it
seems as if Björling's sensitivity for words is mainly of a different
kind than that which is achieved by a style based on effects created
by images. He has realized this himself, when over the years he has
increasingly restricted his images and instead directed his efforts at
liberating the syntax itself from the schemes of everyday language. In
this lies his great and innovative achievement."
1
At the same time, the everyday—or, as Björling might have put it,
the "day"—and everyday language are at the center of his poetic
project. (A recent study of his poetry, written by Anders Olsson,
is characteristically titled Att skriva dagen [To write
the day].) As for many other modern poets, language, for Björling,
constitutes the poetic medium. What sets him apart is his technique of
using only the most ordinary words, insisting that "my language is not
in the words." There is in his poetry a skepticism of language—the
despair that "each explanation is delimiting closuring, each word leads
astray"—paired with a struggle against skepticism and a strong
faith in language, which makes reading it an extraordinary experience.
I have prefaced my translations of Björling's poems with a few selections
of poetics, taken from various sources. The first two quotes are from a
1928 essay called "Universalism," the third from a 1947 essay called
"Min skrift—lyrik?" (My writing—poetry?), the fourth
is from the 1934 collection Fågel badar snart i vattnen (Bird
bathes soon in the waters), and the last one from a contribution to the
Finland-Swedish modernist periodical Quosego. The poems are taken
from the following collections (the numbering is my own): 1, 7, and 17:
Luft är och ljus (Air is and light) (1946); 2, 3, 18, 19, and 20:
Du går de ord (You go the words) (1955); 4 and 5: Där jag vet
att du (Where I know that you) (1938); 6: Att i sitt öga (That
in one's eye) (1954); 8 and 12: Ett blyersstreck (A pencilstroke)
(1951); 9: Korset och Löftet (The cross and the
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vow) (1925); 10: Kiri-ra! (1930); 11: Ord och att ej annat
(Words and that not other) (1945); 13: Vårt kattliv timmar (Our
catlife hours) (1949); 14: Solgrönt (Sungreen) (1933); 15 and 16:
Ohört blott (Unheard merely) (1946).
Finally, a few words on my approach to the translation of the poems. Since
Björling's poetry resists a smooth syntax and constructs its music
through such resistance, I have chosen to bring out this angular,
material aspect of the text, thereby perhaps occasionally exaggerating
its "foreignness." What appears strange in the Swedish original may
easily become even stranger in English, but this should perhaps be
seen as an opportunity rather than a drawback. Philip Lewis, in coining
the term "abusive fidelity," advocates a fidelity to the abuse
of the original text, that is, to its abuse of conventional forms and
language. Amplifying the foreign aspects of the original serves to refresh
its (time-worn) material opacity. What has guided my hyperliteralism here
is the thought that Björling's poetry should be taken on its own terms,
by attending to its textual conditions rather than explaining the poetry
or making it (seem) easier to digest.
Fredrik Hertzberg has a Ph.D. from the poetics program at SUNY Buffalo. He
is working toward the F.D. in comparative literature at Äbo Akademi
University in Finland. His most recent publication (a collaboration)
is Pappaboken (Dad's book, 2001). He has taught for several years
in the Department of Comparative Literature at Äbo Akademi and reviews
books for the main Finland-Swedish newspaper, Hufvudstadsbladet.
Note
The work of Gunnar Björling is printed with permission of Finlands Svenska Författare-frening – Society of Swedish Authors in Finland. The Society of Swedish Authors in Finland (FSF),founded in 1919, is the central organization of Swedish-language writers in Finland. It is a professional union of Þction writers and essayists. The purpose of FSF is to safeguard the interests of the Swedish-language writers in Finland and to promote Swedish-language literature in Finland. The number of members is 186.
1.
Bengt Holmqvist, Kritiska ögonblick: Essäer, artiklar
1946–1986 (Critical moments: Essays, articles, 1946–1986)
(Stockholm: Bonniers, 1987), 133.