Translator's Introduction to Misanthropic — Web Exclusive
By Joan Kunsch
Born in 1934 in Romsdal, Norway, Dug Sundby was educated in Hebrew at the University of Oslo and in French language and literature in Paris. He has published five novels, four poetry collections, and many short stories and articles. During the past twenty years he has lived in Paris, Prague, Brussels, and Vilnius. He has now returned to live in his native Norway.
The poet tells me that he wrote this poem on "a New Year's Eve in Brussels after having watched a stupid comic American film on TV, with inlaid laughter. "
The following translation presents a less than festive view on the subject of parties. Special challenges the translation presented included the fact that "auto-da-fe" is not a commonly used phrase in English. (It has been assimilated into Norwegian, with the final "er " indicating the plural form: autodafeer.) It refers to a judgment publicly declared and carried out during the Spanish Inquisition, against a supposed heretic. My research indicates it was a judgment initiated by the Church, with executions of the sentence (which could include burning at the stake) carried out by civil authorities. "Auto-dafe" (Portuguese) is translated "act of (the) faith."
Poet Dag Sundby has mentioned "New Year's massacres of the spirit, of soul, of inspiration," with allusion to the medieval burning ofpeople and to Goebbels' burning of books. As it appears in the first stanza of this poem, it may be taken as a reference to what the poet was watching on television one New Year's Eve; or to this being the eve of yet more death sentences and aggressive acts sure to be carried out in the new year; or to the symbolic little deaths imparted through social snubs that can take place at holiday parties.
Joan Kunsch is on the classical ballet faculty at Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, where she is also associate director. Guest teaching and choreography have taken her around North America and abroad, particularly to Scandinavia, England, and The Netherlands. She belongs to a teaching team that has produced dancers for over fifty professional companies touring worldwide, and her choreography comprises over sixty works for concert stage, television, sacred space, and outdoor sites. An artist and writer, Kunsch has had work published in the United States, Norway, England, and India.