Volume 68, Number 2 · Spring 2019
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Endless Summer

Martin Glaz Serup

Uendelige sommer
underlige indtryk
som at stirre lige ind i solen


Sære subtropiske dufte
i nåleskoven


Sære subtropiske dufte
i løvskoven


Sære subtropiske dufte
i byerne
på strandene


Brombærene burde ikke være fremme
allerede
sorte og overmodne


Grågule plæner
planter, udtørrede rodsystemer
mange meter under jorden


Joggeren siger:
Man skal bare vænne sig til vejret
drikke vand


Cafégæsten siger:
Før kunne man tale om vejret
det kan man ikke længere


Underlige dufte fra søerne også
fra havet, fra havene
selvlysende og smukke
blågrøn grød


Det er som algerne tænker
når det blæser lidt
hvad tænker de på


Ænderne har grønne næb


Ænderne har grønne ben


Menneskene er holdt op med at svømme i søerne


Menneskene er holdt op med at sove i sengene


På altanerne står de om natten
i underbukser og glor
på månen


Fra åbne vinduer
glaner de om morgenen
ud over markerne


Ud over støvet
ilden
og røgen


Der ligesom insekterne vokser
og vokser, tropiske klima


Ilden og apatien
vokser, tropiske klima


Apatien
der selv er et lamt lille ord
opgivende og mat
vokser


Apatien vokser
som havde den et omfang
vi kunne fatte
som havde den en krop
der lod sig øge
i det uendelige
vokser den

Endless Summer

translated from the Danish by
Christopher Sand-Iversen

Endless summer
unusual impressions
like staring straight at the sun


Strange subtropical smells
in the coniferous forest


Strange subtropical smells
in the deciduous forest


Strange subtropical smells
in the towns
on the beaches


The blackberries oughtn’t be out
already
black and overripe


Gray-yellow lawns
plants, dried-out root systems
many meters under the ground


The jogger says:
You just have to get used to the weather
drink water


The guest in the cafe says:
You could talk about the weather before
you can’t now


Unusual smells from the lakes too
from the sea, the oceans
luminous and beautiful
blue-green gruel


When a breeze blows
it’s as though the algae think
what do they think about


The ducks have green beaks


The ducks have green legs


People have stopped swimming in the lakes


People have stopped sleeping in their beds


They stand on their balconies at night
in their underpants and stare
at the moon


From open windows
they gape across the fields
in the morning


Across the dust
the fire
and the smoke


Which like the insects increase
and increase, tropical climate


The fire and the apathy
increase, tropical climate


Apathy
itself a lame little word
resigned and weak
increases


The apathy increases
as though it had a girth
we could grasp
as though it had a body
which could grow
interminably
it increases

Martin Glaz Serup was born in Copenhagen in 1978, where he currently lives with his family. He has published five chapbooks, eleven children’s books, a book-length theoretical essay on poetry and relational aesthetics, and seven volumes of poetry. His poetry has been translated and published in Germany, Sweden, Finland, the United States, Mexico, and is forthcoming in Greece. His latest book, Reading Places (2018), is creative nonfiction dealing with place, memory, and reading—an odd autobiography as a reader. The book has just been accepted for publication in the United Kingdom and Finland. In 2015 he was awarded a PhD from the University of Copenhagen for his dissertation, Cultural Memory and Conceptual Witness Literature. Serup has been editor of several Danish and Nordic literary magazines and is blogging at the really old-school blog: Kornkammer. Currently Serup teaches poetics and creative writing at the University of Copenhagen and at the Writer’s School for Children’s Literature at Aarhus University.
Christopher Sand-Iversen holds a BA in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MA in visual culture from the University of Copenhagen. He is the director of SixtyEight Art Institute, an independent organization in Copenhagen which supports artistic and curatorial research in the field of contemporary art, as well as a founder editor of its publishing house, RSS Press. He has previously worked at several museums in Denmark, in addition to translating literature, exhibition catalogues, and academic papers into English from Danish, Swedish, and German for numerous clients. His work appears in the White Review, Asymptote, and Poetry Wales among other publications