Knut Odegard [Norway / Iceland]

Mother

I have a mother in a blue coat.

She takes my hand, I am
small I am afraid, she
leads me.
 
Her coat is
sewn with stars.
The snow is so high
here when we walk in the Milky Way
where no snow is cleared: She
and I.
 
 
Time
 
Time comes on to the stage now. Stands a little at first
and hesitates, looks closely
at the doorplate in the house (a backdrop there on the stage) to make sure
it is the right place, rings
 
and I open: Then
the Time is in.
 
The stage curtain
falls, it shines of moon and stardust trickles
from the curtain, which is the universe´s glowing ground
 
the curtain glides up again
and there stands the eternal clown:
holds a shrieking newborn baby
on the stage
while Time bows down
for applause. Then
 
the Time is out.
 
  
Old Lady at the Airport
 
She walks like a bird, flows forward with small jerks
through the departure hall.
 
Her name is Hanna, she has a body
almost without weight.
She is on her way to the exit gate, she stared
with her milk-blue bird´s eyes so weakened
by cataracts at a bright screen
where it read "Gate A12"
and it is Hanna who is coming now, with her light
jerks in this airport, to her Gate A12.
 
She holds three bags of plaited raffia in her claws.
She has put her things there,
there was so little she took with her on this journey,
small gifts an a local paper.
 
Her hair is white bird´s feathers,
her mouth a beak,
and her back is finely bent
like an impression of an arc
on the lower ski slope where Hanna cane at dizzying speed
towards childhood´s ski jump
beside the barn at home, a jump
that in Hanna´s thoughts now twists slowly
up towards the stars
after the last
endless glide.
 
But her back
is bent in an arc towards the earth
where she scuttles like a bird
towards the exit where the plane
waits for her on the other side
of the corridor where the door will soon be opened
and Hanna soon will fly:
 
And her body, bent down to the earth, will take off
towards sky and stars.
  
(Translated into English by Brian McNeil)

 
 
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Knut Ødegård is the most widely translated poet in modern Norwegian literature.  His poetry books have appeared in separate books in 43 languages. Born in 1945, he is living partly in Norway and partly in Iceland. He studied theology and philology at the University of Oslo and University of Cambridge. His first volume of poetry was published in l967, and since then he has published 18 poetry books, most recently "My white hair in the wind" (2025).  He has also written novels, short stories, non-ficition books (among them three books about Iceland), books for children and essays. He has translated 18 volumes of foreign poetry, among them four volumes containing the medieval edda poems but also modern works. Knut Ødegård has been the Managing Director of a publishing company, and the Managing Director of the Nordic House, Reykjavik, Iceland. He founded the Reykjavik Literary Festival 1985. Since 1969 he was a literary critic in leading newspapers of Norway. In 1989 Ødegård was appointed a lifetime Norwegian State Scholar by the Parliament of Norway. He is the founder and president of the Norwegian International Festival of Literature, Bjørnsonfestivalen. He also was president of the Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Academy of Literature and freedom of expression. He has been a member of the board of the Norwegian Society of Authors, the Norwegian Society of Critics and the Norwegian PEN.  He was Secretary General of the European Academy of Poets for several years and was appointed (as the first foreigner) a member of the Icelandic Society of Writers. In 2015 he became a member of The Norwegian Academy. Since 1997 he has been the hon. Consul General for the Republic of North Macedonia. He was knighted by the King of Norway in 1997. He has received several orders, awards and distinctions from Norway and other countries. Among them: Commander with Star of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon, Commander with Star of the papal Equestrial Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (OESSH) from the Holy See and knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM). In 2001 he was awarded the greatest cultural prize of Norway, the Anders Jahre Cultural Prize, in 2007 he was awarded the Slovak international prize for poetry, the Jan Smrek Prize, in 2009 he was awarded the Gold Medal and 1. Prize for poetry in Taiwan, in 2011 the Swedish Academy awarded him the Dobloug Prize for his poetry. In 2014 he was awarded the Serbian award for poetry,”The Golden Key of Smederevo” and in 2015 the Rumenian International Prize of poetry. In 2016 he received the international poetry prize of Kosovo, ”The Golden Grape”. He is honored with a Litt.D. h.c. in Mexico, and in 2017 the Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture instituted him as hon professor of literature. Same year he was presented the international poetry prize of Ulaanbaatar. In 2024 he was awarded Le Grand Prix from Académie Internationale "Mihai Eminescu" in Romania, in 2025 he was awarded the Golden Medal from Academia Tomitana, Romania and in 2026 he was honored with a honorary membership of French PEN Club – Cercle littéraire international.

(Photo by Anna-Julia Granberg)