Ida Börjel, trans. Jennifer Hayashida

from Ma

 Daytrading was, the paperwork

deals, the dogs

double entry bookkeeping for the educated and

the not; surface water, drainage was

green houses inside white inside red

birds; odor of gold was; cyclical

ditty for non-durables

that icelight, threads of despair were

byproducts were and side effects

decay, slaughter, delusion; deeply inhaled

how the reasonable should encompass

also this     europeana

 

DNA: DSM; that

the deep sea enduring

fraternal orders, the orders were

clubs, beer was

and the delirium, the dispatch

the delirium     Pythia

 

outer space, the outer spaces were

the decree, word by word; in earth

Earth; there was the more I

express myself the emptier I am

tautology, the tautologies were

weighing

the anchor in reality’s

bond between fore- and background

where the government’s wordless

drones over Seine-Saint-Denis

where during the final days

in Camping family radio     Alameda

dagsruljansen fanns, pappersarbetet

dagtingan, hundarna

den dubbla bokföringen för bildade och

obildade; dagvattnet, dräneringen fanns

gröna hus inuti vita inuti röda

fåglar; guldvittring fanns; tidscykliska

dagligvaruvisa

att isljus, smärttrådar fanns

biprodukterna fanns och bieffekter

svinn, offer, slakteri; djupinandad

hur det rimliga ska kapsla

också detta     europeana

 

DNA; DSM; att

det djuphavsöverblivna

ordensväsen, ordnarna fanns

bastuklubbarna, ölet fanns

och ruset, följebrevet

ruset     Pythia

 

världsrymden, världsrymdar fanns

domen, ord för ord; i jorden

Jorden; det fanns ju mer jag

uttrycker mig desto mer töms jag

tautologin, tautologierna fanns

i en upplösning av

verklighetsförbundets

löfte mellan för- och bakgrund

där regeringens ordlösa

drönare över Seine-Saint-Denis

där de yttersta dagarana

i Camping familjeradio     Alameda

 
 

Ida Börjel was born in 1975. For her first book, Sond (2004), she received the prestigious award Katapultpriset. Her more than six book include SkåneradioKonsumentköplagen: juris lyrik, and MA. She lives in Malmö and Röstånga and works with the City Fables Group at Malmö University, exploring the way that stories about life in contemporary cities are negotiated, remediated, and circulated.

Jennifer Hayashida is a poet, translator, and artist. She is most recently the Swedish co-translator of Solmaz Sharif’s Look (Rámus Förlag, 2017), while previous projects include translations from the Swedish of Ida Börjel's Miximum Ca’Canny The Sabotage Manuals, Athena Farrokhzad's White Blight, and Karl Larsson's Form/Force. She is currently at work on the English translation of The Day I Am Free, Lawen Mohtadi's biography of the Swedish Roma civil rights activist and author Katarina Taikon, as well as the first volume of Taikon’s children’s book series, Katitzi, to be published by Sternberg Press in 2018. She serves on the board of the Asian American Writers' Workshop.