Some poems from Harry Martinson's Natur (1934)

 

[Image source: https://turismo.buenosaires.gob.ar/es/article/breve-historia-de-la-carne-argentina .]

Argentinska slätter

Natten river smattrande sin mantel längs pampas.
Mörkrets oväder blir en dagstorm in mot Anderna.
Solen stiger ur jorden, 

ser ned på en flyende boskapshjord som 

         rusar in i horisonterna mot Tucumana.
        Gräsmarkerna åska under den uppskrämda hjorden, 

           flykten dånar som en stad: 

        en virvlande stad som jagats åt norr 

                 av Eldslandets vindar. 

Argentine plains

Night scrapes its cloak rattling across the pampas.
The tumult of darkness becomes a day storm over by the Andes.

The sun rises from the earth, 

looks down upon a fleeing herd of cattle that 

        rush into the horizons Tucumán way.
        The grasslands thunder beneath the frightened herd, 

            their flight roars like a city, 

        a flailing city harried northwards 

                 by the winds of Tierra del Fuego.

*

Harry Martinson visited Argentina and other S. American countries during his time as a sailor (1920 - 1927). 

The pampas is known for intense thunderstorms and severe hail. 

Tucumán province, in NW Argentina. 

*

La Pampa

Bakom Don Morjas estancia

började boskapshjorden med några smärre vikar,

sträckte sig sedan åt nordväst

med ett hav av oxar

och en havsbukt av kalvar.

Oceanen av muande nöt gick ända till Corrientes.

Don  Morjas blåste i fagott

på sin marmorveranda,

såg på sitt behornade hav med mätta och trötta ögon:

   "Undras om inte nordöstra viken

   räknat från brokiga kalven här framme

   snart kunde drivas mot Pasamadas' fjärran på bete?

                 Västra grenen till slakt."

La Pampa

Behind Don Morias' estancia

the herd of cattle began with a few minor inlets,

then stretched northwest

with a sea of ​​oxen

and a sea-bay of calves.

The ocean of bellowing cattle went all the way to Corrientes.

Don Morias blew his bassoon

on his marble veranda,

looked at his horned sea with replete and weary eyes:

    "I wonder if the northeastern arm

    counting from the piebald calf here

    can soon be driven towards the distant Pasamadas to pasture?

                   The western branch to slaughter."

*

La Pampa: province in central Argentina.

Morjas: i.e. Morias in Spanish, but it is not a common surname. (An occasional variant of Moraes or Morais, common Portuguese surnames.) 

Corrientes: province in the north of Argentina (not near La Pampa). 

Pasamadas: name unknown. 

*

Fattig trakt

På sommaren stodo Vendes fältkanoner

och hostade i gräset --

manöveråskorna rullade mot hembyn

och pigorna sjöngo.

Det var som om molnen rämnat

och nakna adonisynglingar regnat ned.

Nymodigheten uppslök en fattig trakt.

Barn plockade gula soldatknappar: maskros på åkern,

                                                    och togo hem --

dörrarna smällde igen för dem: -- Asch, sånt gulstrunt!

                                                    åt helsike ungar!

Pigor svängde dukar på kullarna:

Hallå, hallåååå! artillerigossar!

Poor district

In the summer, Vendes' field guns stood

and coughed in the grass --

the thunder of manoeuvres rolled towards their home village

and the maids sang.

It was as if the clouds had split

and naked Adonis children had rained down.

The novelty swallowed up a poor district.

Children picked yellow soldier buttons: dandelions in the field,

                                                        and took them home --

the doors slammed shut on them: -- Ugh, such yellow trash!

                                                        Go to hell, children!

Maids waved tablecloths on the hills:

Hello, hellooooo! artillery boys!

*

Vendes' field guns : referring to the Wendes Artillery Regiment (Wendes artilleriregemente), a longstanding regiment in the Swedish army (disbanded in 2000). They were garrisoned in Kristianstad (Skåne), about 40km from Jämshög (Blekinge) where Harry Martinson was born and where as a parish orphan he was placed in various farmsteads

*

Pigor

          Minnes barndomens pigor;

          tilldels själar

          med ödsliga, sensuella ögon;

tilldels höga brösts och mäktiga länders varma

arvsmonument från forna vadmalsland. 

Slagfärdiga munnars rop i slåttern;

samsångens pigpsalm i ladugård;

drömmar på knä ibland rovor;

surmjölk i stenkrus på renen. 

Det buttra mumlet om Olga

faren i väg till Idaho.

Många tomma pigor sutto

med hängande själar;

men många sutto där stolta: undersamt barnkära

                                                 kvinnor

          med buttert melodiska röster

          mumlande liksom ur myter.

Där fanns pigor med jungfrudunkel,

    med legenden i schalen

    och digra frågor i hindklara ögon.

    Maria gick

    med vit andedräkt

    över världens höstkalla scen.

Där fanns gitarrens klagande himlapiga.

Den slarviga dansbanelängterskan fanns

och den obstinata flottistpigan

-- fetischdyrkare inför matrosuniformer.

Men underligast höstskymningarnas

trollska längterska,

separatorns vemodiga, tunga prästinna

som bugade och drog, bugade och drog

        den mjölkrytande Alfa-lavalen,

               med spiselden speglad

               i undrande ögon.

        Då sjöng det urtrollska bondska i sinnet

               som en tung malm.

               Buttra talade rösterna.

               Barnet låg undrande i vaggan,

               jakthunden såg upp från sin korg.

               Var det inte som sången om eviga bönder_

               Som malmen av givande jord?

Maids

          Remembering the maids of childhood;

          some of them souls

          with desolate, sensual eyes;

some of them high breasts and powerful loins

warm historic monuments from the ancient land of vadmal.

The cries of ready-made mouths in the haystack;

the singing of the young man's hymn in the barn;

dreams on his knees among turnips;

sour milk in stone jugs on the reindeer.

The sullen murmur of Olga

the father on his way to Idaho.

Many empty maids sat

with drooping souls;

but many sat there proud: strangely childlike

                                                  women

      with sullenly melodic voices

      mumbling as if from myths.

There were maids with virgin darkness,

      with the legend in their shawls

      and huge questions in their clear eyes.

      Maria walked

      with white breath

      over the world's autumn-cold stage.

There was the plaintive heavenly maiden of the guitar.

There was the careless dance-floor-longing girl 

and the obstinate navy maid

-- fetish worshipper of sailor uniforms.

But strangest of all was the

magical longing girl of the autumn twilights,

the melancholy, heavy priestess of the separator

who bowed and pulled, bowed and pulled

     the milk-roaring Alfa Laval,

            with the stove-fire reflected

            in her wondering eyes.

     Then sang the primordial peasantry in the mind

            like a heavy ore.

            The voices spoke sullenly.

            The child lay wondering in the cradle,

            the hunting dog looked up from its basket.

            Wasn't it like the song of eternal farmers?

            Like the ore of yielding earth?

*

Vadmal: a woollen fabric used for outerwear, durable and waterproof like tweed, but felted so the weave pattern is obscured. 

Alfa Laval: the company started in 1883, originally making dairy centrifuges to separate cream from milk (as in the poem), subsequently diversifying to other specialized plant in heavy industry.

*

Some poems by Harry Martinson from the "Grassland" section of his 1934 collection Natur.  

Nature normally takes the definite article in Swedish, i.e. naturen, literally "the Nature". So Martinson's title is a slight unmooring. 

According to his Swedish Wikipedia entry this "expressionist-tinged collection" met with a cool reception (compared with the success of its 1931 predecessor Nomad) and this led him to concentrate on prose for the next eleven years, e.g. Nässlorna blomma  (The nettles flower, 1935), about his broken childhood.