Halfdan Rasmussen 110 år 🎂

Dette indlæg udgav så sig selv den 6. oktover ... mere end ½ år siden jeg skrev den - Bloggers veje er uransagelige. Det har nu fået den rigtige dato på igen.

I dag er det Halfdan Rasmussens 110 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 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.)

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This post was stuck somewhere until October 6th. I have now corrected the date - Strange things happen with Blogger.  

Today is the 110th 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 at his other birthdays, publish one of the eight rhymes for children that was censored from the latest collection - and will continue to do so for his next birthdays until I run out of poems, and 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.

I wrote that I did not want to make an English versification of the poems, as my less than perfect English poetry would make 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.
  And just in case you can not remember ;) I want to add Elephant's Child's wise comment here: "Clothes and people's expectations frequently do chafe. And itch."

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En liste over alle de bortcensurerede vers og hvor de er udgivet.

All the censored verses and from where they come.

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)

Rikke
Min mor er glad,                My mother is happy.
min far er rar,                     My father is nice
min søster hedder Rikke.   And my sister is called Rikke
Hun tar et bad i januar,      She takes a bath in January
men bader ellers ikke.        but else she is not bathing.
Når hun er ren                    When she's clean,
og smuk og pæn,                 and beautiful and nice.
så går hun ud og leger.       she runs out to play.
Og klokken fem                 When at five
går Rikke hjem                   Rikke goes home
som negerskorstensfejer!   she's as black as a negro chimneysweep.