Halfdans forbudte digte 29/1 2021

I dag er det Halfdan Rasmussens 106 års fødselsdag. Lige som sidste år bringer Uglemor et af de otte børnerim, der er blevet bortcensurerede i den nyeste udgave af hans samlede værker. Jeg vil gentage dette på de næste 6 fødselsdage hvis jeg lever så længe.
     Denne censur gør mig ondt, dels fordi de ord, han brugte, dengang var neutrale ord for folk og folkeslag og det derfor burde være muligt at bringe dem - eventuelt med fodnoter eller et forklarende forord. Dels fordi slags amerikanske tilstande med fornærmelses-parathed og følsomheds-censur på andres vegne ikke burde forekomme - og da slet ikke ramme Halfdan Rasmussen, der faktisk var en stor og modig forkæmper for folk, frihed og menneskerettigheder og imod censur. Hans vers om Bødlen for eksempel burde være tvungen læsning for alle mennesker i hele verden.
     Og i det tilfælde att du ikke læser kommentarerne, vil jeg lige gengive Elephant's Child's kloge kommentar: "Clothes and people's expectations frequently do chafe. And itch." (tøj og folks forventninger generer ofte - og klør.)

-- 🎂 --

  Today is the 106th birthday of Halfdan Rasmussen. Maybe one of the greatest Danish contemporary poets. MotherOwl holds him in high esteem, and on the occasion of his birthday I will, like last year, publish one of the eight rhymes for children that was censored from the latest collection - and will continue to do so for his next six birthday, if I live long enough.
  This censorship grieves me as Halfdan Rasmussen is truly a great fighter for freedom and equality, his pen wrote the Danish verse that was turned into Each Small Candle.
  The words he used, were the at that time neutral demonyms, and the verses should be included, maybe with a footnote or a preamble.

   There won't be an English versification of the poems, as my less than perfect English poetry made the verses rather pedestrian.  I mourn the fact that I'm not a poetic genius able to render them full justice. His equilibristic verses are serious even at their most playful, and never serious without at least a touch of humour.
  But after seeing what Google translate did to those verses, I am supplying a translation - word for word, or rather meaning for meaning with no pretension of any versification. Last year's poem will be updated in the same way.
  And just in case you do not read the comments I want to insert Elephant's Child's wise connet here: "Clothes and people's expectations frequently do chafe. And itch."

-- 🎂 --

En liste over alle de bortcensurerede vers og hvor de er udgivet. Jeg begyndte med nummer 1 sidste år, og fortsætter med nummer 2 i år.

All the censored verses and from where they come. I began with number one last year, and will just tacle then one at a time.

1. Lille negerdukke (Børnerim) (2020)
   
2. To små negerdukker (Børnerim) (2021)
   
3. Hittehattehættehuer (Børnerim)
4. Rikke (Børnerim)
5. Negerdukken lille Sam (Børnerim)
6. Sikken et hus (Børnerim)
7. Nogle øjne er så smukke (Halfdans rim)
8. Alle bilerne fra landet (Halfdans rim)

To små negerdukker
To små søde negerdukker                  Two cute little Negro dolls
gik i byen efter sukker,                       Went to town to buy some sugar
men da de var splitternøgne                But as they were stark naked
gjorde godtfolk store øjne.                 Goodly people were gawping.

På et torv med flotte huse                 In a square with pretty houses
Købte de sig hver en bluse                each of them bought a blouse
For at prøve på at dække                   trying to cover up                                                                   
Det som var så kønt hos begge.         what was pretty in both of them.

Bluser er så tit så korte.                    Blouses are often very short
Og skønt numserne var sorte            and even though the bums were black
stirred folk så uanstændigt                people stared without decency
at det føltes næsten skændigt.           it was almost shameful

To små søde negerdukker                 Two cute little Negro dolls 
skyndte sig at købe sukker,               hurried up and bought the sugar
og hos frøken Tummelumsen            and at Mrs. Tummelumsen's*
fik de sko og skørt om numsen.        they got shoes and a shirt around their bums.

Tøj er varmt og sko kan klemme,     Clothes are hot, and shoes can pinch,
så da de igen var hjemme                 when they reached their home again
smed de tøjet over stolen                   they threw their clothes upon a chair
og løb nøgne ud i solen.                    and ran naked into the sun.

                                                                                

* Name from a book (Livsens Ondskab by Gustav Wied). The name sounds funny and like Mrs. Dizzy

Freedom is Worth Fighting for.

Back to the Classics or what?

Now I've asked Karen K of Books and Chocolate to delete me from her list of participants in the challenge. It's a long story. I participated in 2018, and 2019. First year with happiness and gusto. Second year not so much, mostly because of the rather militant feminism displayed by her and some of the participants.
  Now in 2020 she did not want me to sign up for her challenge - she removed me from the entries (three times, no less) and deleted my questions and answers in the comment section of the entry-post (look further below for clarification)
  Then I modified her list to suit my preferences and entered under a new name. But it was not fun any more, every time I thought about this challenge, I felt demotivated, not angry but grumpy, bleak, depressed, irritated, and even kind of misused.
  I did not read any books, I did not write any reviews. I did not even have fun reading. Now, this morning I awoke angry. I wanted to have fun again. It's just plain ole not fun to have to censor what I say and mean because of a bunch of  American Literary SJWs. I wanted my freedom back and I have now stopped participating in Back to the Classics. My entries are going to stay on my blog, because it was fun once. 

About Karen K's deletion of my entry and comments:
This is a re-post from earlier. I can't remember if I ever pressed publish or not - probably not.

     It sure was not on my bucket list, but it is a thing I never have tried before. I've been censored, excluded or what to call it.
   In the beginning of January Karen K of Books and Chocolate removed my entry from the sign-up linky and deleted my questions and answers in the comment section. (Scroll to the bottom of this post for details)
  Even though I initially felt tempted to mis-quote Groucho and say: I don’t want to belong to any club that won't have me as a member, my stubborn streak soon surfaced.
  As a member of a minority in more ways than one in my community and a stay at home-mom to boot, I have experienced not being taken seriously, not being heard or picked and so on, but good old fashioned censorship is new to me. I have meanwhile grown a hard hide (or should that be thick or tough skin?), and I'm not going to be deterred from this special kind of fun.
  I have re-entered, but will refrain from commenting on her blog, apart from harmless comments and links to my reviews. In effect censoring myself - double standards or what?
  I might have to re-enter a couple more times, as I have been deleted again (January as well).
Then WHY am I fighting to stay on this list, stubbornly re-entering under a new name with each deletion?  Really because I hold freedom of speech for a greater good than my personal comfort. Even if Karen K do not like some of what I say, and I do not like some of what she says, we should still be able to talk together. As someone once said: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"

- - - - - - - - -

My comment:
  My crime was that I asked her why "# 3 - Classic by a Female author" was on the list again - and yes I asked that last year too, but still ... It was there for the 3rd year running. She said it was because female and non-white writers were under-represented in the Classics. And readers' appetites needed to be broadened. And I was free to not participate in the challenge if I choose to.
  I then wrote the following answer (in Word and copy-pasted, that's why I can quote myself here), whereupon my entry and comments were deleted:

  "Yes I asked last year too, I won't make this faux pas again, but I'd like to share my thoughts behind why I ask. As a disclaimer: Yes, I totally agree with you and NN (a Literature savvy reader also commenting, and deleted in the fracas. Name hidden by me) that white males dominate the Classic literature scene.
   Last year I was provoked by one of the participants, choosing only female authors, thinking that this participant ought to have her perspective broadened as well, but you all just applauded.
   This year it is the repetitiveness of it: There's so many minorities, religious, gender, racial, sexual, age, living place, economic and so on, so why do the gender-one make it to the list each year (I did not look how far back, but at least the 4 years I've been participating).
   I won't choose not to participate, as this challenge is far too much fun to me, but I might never make it to 12 books, as I choose books to read from whether they look exiting to me - I am not going to check up on the author's bio before reading - and sometimes it's hard to tell the gender on sight, especially for a non-English, as with Evelyn, Ngaio (to take 2 where at least I was surprised to learn the gender) and names like P.J. And the colour of an author can't be seen at all from a name.
  All the other categories are pertaining to the book, and that is - for me - fun, challenging and something I can see when holding the book in my hand. The two pertaining to the author (and this would be true even if the criterias were Jewish, Australian, younger than 18, etc.) I have to go play a detective in the Internet to check up on this, before borrowing or buying the book.
  Maybe this is my real problem. I can't just grab a book in the library meeting the criteria on sight."

  Possibly the better part of wisdom would have been to just shut up and sneakily avoid those two categories, but this kind of underhand behaviour is not really my style.

Halfdan Rasmussen 105 år

     I dag er det Halfdan Rasmussens 105 års fødselsdag. I den anledning bringer Uglemor et af de otte af hans børnerim, der er blevet bortcensurerede i den nyeste udgave af hans samlede værker. Jeg vil gentage dette på de næste 7 fødselsdage hvis jeg lever så længe.
     Denne censur gør mig ondt, dels fordi de ord, han brugte, dengang var neutrale ord for folk og folkeslag og det derfor burde være muligt at bringe dem - eventuelt med fodnoter eller et forklarende forord. Dels fordi slags amerikanske tilstande med fornærmelses-parathed og følsomheds-censur på andres vegne ikke burde forekomme - og da slet ikke ramme Halfdan Rasmussen, der faktisk var en stor og modig forkæmper for folk, frihed og menneskerettigheder og imod censur. Hans vers om Bødlen for eksempel burde være tvungen læsning for alle mennesker i hele verden.

-- 🎂 --

  Today is the 105th birthday of Halfdan Rasmussen. Maybe one of the greatest Danish contemporary poets. MotherOwl holds him in high esteem, and on the occasion of his birthday I publish one of the eight rhymes for children that was censored from the latest collection - and will continue to do so for the next seven birthday, if I live long enough.
  This censorship grieves me as Halfdan Rasmussen is truly a great fighter for freedom and equality, his pen wrote the Danish verse that was turned into Each Small Candle.
  The words he used, were the at that time neutral demonyms, and the verses should be included, maybe with a footnote or a preamble.

   There won't be an English translation. For two reasons:
-  First and most important. My less than perfect English translations made the verses rather pedestrian.  I mourn the fact that I'm not a poetic genius able to render them full justice. His equilibristic verses are serious even at their most playful, and never serious without at least a touch of humour.
- Second and with regrets I censor myself (but only in English - please feel free to use Google translate). I do not want to offend any thin-skinned and senstitive (American) readers of this blog. I've had far too many not so nice comments and experiences already in 2020, and I don't want any more.

-- 🎂 --

     En liste over alle de bortcensurerede vers og hvor de er udgivet. Jeg begynder med nummer 1.
  All the censored verses and from which book they originally came. I'll just begin with number one.

1. Lille negerdukke (Børnerim) (2020)
   
2. Hittehattehættehuer (Børnerim)
3. Rikke (Børnerim)
4. Negerdukken lille Sam (Børnerim)
5. Sikken et hus (Børnerim)
6. To små negerdukker (Børnerim)
7. Nogle øjne er så smukke (Halfdans rim)
8. Alle bilerne fra landet (Halfdans rim)

Lille negerdukke                       Little Negro Doll
Lille negerdukke                         Little Negro doll
sover i min seng                          is sleeping in my bed
sammen med en dejlig                together with a lovely
gul kineserdreng.                        yellow Chinese boy

Jeg har sunget mine                    I've sung both of my
kære børn til ro,                          dear children off to sleep
klappet dem på kinden,               Patted their small cheeks,
kysset begge to.                          given both a kiss

Vi er een familie.                       We are one family,
Børn af samme jord.                  children of the same earth
Sov, min sorte søster!                Sleep, my black sister!
Sov, min gule bror!                    Sleep, my yellow brother!

-- 🎂 --

I bogen er der en charmerende tegning af en lille pige, der sover sammen med sine dukker. Ikke helt korrekt ifølge teksten, men den er altså sød. Undskyld den ringe billedkvalitet af scanningen her.

-- 🎂 --

In the book there's a charming illustration of a little girl sleeping with her dolls.  Not quite according to the text, but sweet anyway. I'm sorry about the poor quality of this scan.