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Nils-Aslak Valkeapää: The Earth, My Mother

Titel: The Earth, My Mother
Oorspronkelijke titel: Eanni, eannázan, 2001
Vertaald uit het Samisch door: Harald Gaski en Lars Nordström
Genre: poezie
Uitgever: DAT, 2017
ISBN13: 978-8290625882

Flaptekst / Beschrijving

The Earth, My Mother has at long last joined The Sun, My Father.

The Earth, My Mother, originally published as Eanni, eannážan in 2001, became Nils-Aslak Valkeapää’s (1943-2001) final book.

Harald Gaski, Lars Nordström and Ralph Salisbury have once more translated one of the author’s major literary works into English.

In The Earth book the Sami perspective has been expanded to embrace indigenous people around the world. The Sami stood in the center of The Sun, My Father, while the speaker in The Earth, My Mother travels far and wide to visit jungles and deserts and their indigenous peoples. It is always clear that the speaker comes as a guest, and he does not pretend to be like them even though he registers kindred values and ways of life. The Sun, My Father (1997), originally published as Beaivi áhčážan (1988), won the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize in 1991.

The book combines poetry, original art work as well as color and black-and-white photographs – a composition technique that reflects Nils-Aslak Valkeapää´s unique creative aesthetic. In this book the indigenous peoples’ voices are expressed through poetry and imagery. The contrasts between insight and primitiveness in the traditional western sense of these words are transformed into a message about humanity’s relationship to the earth – something which we all depend on for our existence. As part of this there is also a cosmic and religious dimension of indigenous peoples’ faith and gratitude for everything that makes life beautiful and good.

The images are, in addition to the author’s personal photographs and paintings, collected from various archives and photographers.