from Odveig Klyve's Second Sight

Here there is something that
comes on soft paws and
licks your cheek
bites your ear, swallows an eye 
that grinds the words
growls in the darkness
something that eats the days
vomits the nights something
that moves the house from 
place to place
there is something here that comes and
is gone with pieces of 
walls and ceilings something that
grinds the names
something that will not be silenced
by all that 
is and is gone
is and is
gone

 

From Odveig Klyve's book Second Sight,
which takes on the subject of Alzheimer's
(and is seeking a publisher in the UK and US).



I have been translating from Norwegian to English since 1995. As of 2009 I had translated 11 full-length books (poetry and prose), two plays and 12 years' worth of excerpts from novels and non-fiction manuscripts for book-fair presentations.

I have had the good fortune to have translated work by authors such as Jon Fosse, Odveig Klyve, Finn Øgland, Einar O. Risa, Tor Obrestad, Kolbein Falkeid and Mansur Rajih.

I consider the time I spent working with Kolbein Falkeid and Tor Obrestad to be an integral part of my education as a writer. They taught me never to embellish, and never to settle for an adequate word.

The charade games Mansur Rajih and I played (while trying to create a sketchy rendering of his poetry in English, through our common language of Norwegian) taught me how much language can limit communication. Diction is character, so no matter how well we translate the words, the result will always be a subjective adaptation of the original.

Having translated everything from rhyming song lyrics from the 19th century to instructions on how to gift wrap, I am particular about the work I take on now.

My most recent full-length project was the translation and audio recording of Odveig Klyve's Second Sight, a verse memoir that tells the story of the progression of her mother's Alzheimer's.

For more information contact me through the "About Ren" page.