Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.06.2011, Blaðsíða 30

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 8 — 2011
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – Eddas and Sagas
The ancient vellums on display.
MILLENNIUM – Icelandic art through the ages.
Phase one. Starts 23 June.
CHILD OF HOPE – Youth and Jón Sigurðsson
Tribute to the leader of the independence movement.
EXHIBITIONS - GUIDED TOURS
CAFETERIA - CULTURE SHOP
The Culture House – Þjóðmenningarhúsið
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfisgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre)
Tel: 545 1400 · thjodmenning.is · kultur.is
Open daily between 11 am and 5 pm
Free guided tour of THE MEDIEVAL
MANUSCRIPTS weekdays at 3 pm,
except Wednesdays.
When you stumble across someone
creating fresh stirrings in a liter-
ary culture that’s already on a con-
stant creative simmer, they must be
doing something worth noticing.
Following publications of several
of his poems on Icelandic poetry
websites and the poetry journal
Stína, mysterious newcomer to the
Icelandic poetry scene Elías Knörr
last autumn published a book of
new Icelandic poetry ‘Sjóarinn með
morgunhestana undir kjólnum’
(“The sailor with the morning hors-
es under her dress”).
Elías Knörr was reportedly born
into a family of Icelandic sailors,
and was the first man in his family
not to go to sea, deciding instead to
study Italian linguistics and travel
abroad.
So far, so standard. Except for one,
very minor, detail. Elías Knörr isn't re-
ally Elías Knörr. He's the pseudonym
of one Elías Portello, notable Galician
poet, linguist, translator, traveller, and
all round rather curious character. His
translations and poetry have earned
him critical acclaim and awards in his
native Galicia and Spain, and his trans-
lation of his Icelandic work appeared in
the renowned UK Poetry Review earlier
this spring.
So how does a Galician linguist end up
in Iceland writing under the identity of a
small town sailor? A little hesitant, Elías
laughs as he tells me he doesn’t even
know where to start.
WELL, HOW ABOUT FROM THE BE-
GINNING?
Well I've been writing poetry since I was
a teenager and have always been fasci-
nated by language. I studied linguistics
and translation in Galicia and am still
working on doctoral studies there. I
first came to Iceland about nine years
ago, to work on my Icelandic studies
and began translating several Icelandic
works, including Einar Már Guðmunds-
son's 'Angels of the Universe' and Sjón's
'Skugga-Baldur' into Galician.
WHY WORK UNDER A PSEUDONYM
FOR YOUR ICELANDIC POETRY?
Mainly because I wanted for the texts to
be valued for what they are, not judged
as if were written by a foreigner. There
is no chance my work would have got-
ten picked up in the way it has here if
I hadn’t done that, and certainly the
selection for inclusion in the UK Poetry
Review wouldn’t have come. I wanted
to start from an equal place.
The way I write—even in Galician—is
to very much stretch the grammatical
constructions of language, in a way
that that grammar and words become
really very strong. The point is to lead
the reader to a very particular focus
within a word when they read it. Even
in mother tongue, people have said to
me, "Oh this is strange, or are you sure
this is what this word means..." so if an
Icelander knew it was foreigner writing,
they would just think “Oh that's wrong!"
But no, it's not wrong! It's the way I
choose to craft and turn the words, so
it's really well thought out!
AND WHY USE KNÖRR (“SHIP”)
FOR YOUR PEN NAME?
Knörr were the ships used by early Ice-
landic merchants to make trade and
transport provisions. They are espe-
cially important for my poetry, and for
me, because they're associated with a
journey and with the notion of travel-
ling from shore to shore. When I pub-
lish in Galician, I make it very clear to
the reader that I am making 'such and
such' experiment with the form; I'll have
different chapters, explain my theories,
etc. But in this book I wanted to make a
journey and let the polyphony of these
characters appear. It gave a lot of free-
dom, even though some of the topics
were difficult. But then again seamen
don’t have an easy life, and the people
they tend to meet don’t have an easy
life either!
The Icelandic culture of 'going on a
Knörr' and seeing the world is very im-
portant. You know this word 'heimskur'
in Icelandic? It means 'idiot' and its re-
lated to the word home. Icelanders say
that the one that grows up without hav-
ing ever left home is really the stupid
one. So I will keep using this because
it’s really important to my poetry.
FROM WHERE, OR FROM WHOM,
DO YOU DRAW YOUR INSPIRA-
TION?
I have very concrete literary theories
and one of them is to search for inspira-
tion 'outside' myself. This can mean to
look to other places and countries and
languages but it's also very important
for me as a writer to find inspiration
outside out my own head. Even though
I have a lot of ideas, the world outside
is practically unlimited, so if you want
to allow yourself new ideas and to re-
consider and transform things it’s im-
portant to consider perceptions and
perspectives other than your own.
I love to research so I like to write po-
ems that are interesting to investigate.
Poetry isn’t just painting words, it’s also
architecture.
As for who inspires me? Well, if you
take the fathers of creationist poetry—
Chilean Vicente Huidobro and Galician
Manuel Antonio—and put them some-
where in the North Atlantic with Kristín
Ómarsdóttir you could be close to Elías
Knörr! Of course my style comes from a
very personal place, but they are writ-
ers I really admire and identify with.
HAVE YOU ANY THOUGHTS ABOUT
THE ICELANDIC POETRY SCENE?
Well I don't really know enough to say
completely. Every country has its na-
tional clichés in how they create and
preserve their literary culture. Person-
ally, I always try to challenge cliché in
my metaphors and identifications, and
challenge the nature of words and of
language. What I like here in Iceland is
that there are many people who, in the
same way, aren't afraid of doing some-
thing. It’s like 'it’s better to be doing
something than not saying any word'.
So if you write a book, maybe it won’t
be the best poetry book, but even if one
or two points are gorgeous, then it cre-
ates some movement in the literary sys-
tem and broadens the horizons a little
bit further.
Literature | Poetry
All Is Not As It Seems With Elías Knörr
Words
Eimear Fitzgerald
Photo
Yann Langevin