The author's desk: Synnøve Persen

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Portrait
Written by Alva Gehrmann

A Desk at the End of the World: Synnøve Persen, the poet, artist and Sámi activist, meets us at her home on Porsangerfjord in the far north. And she lets us see what is on her desk just now.

Synnøve Persen. Foto: Susanne Hætta

“The poems seek me out”, Synnøve Persen explains. When she begins the work on a new collection, she is never certain of what her poems will be about. “My writing is intuitive. It often happens that my mind focuses on a sentence or phrase as I drive through the solitary, wild landscapes in the Finnmark. Whenever it happens I stop and take notes.”

Earlier, she lived for twenty years in more southerly Norwegian cities of Oslo and Trondheim but now the sixty-nine-year-old writer is back in her home territory. When she looks up from her deskwork, she has a great view of the Porsangerfjord, which remains icebound until May.

Like most Sámi in her generation, Persen went to a boarding school where her native, centuries-old culture was ignored and anything other than official Norwegian was discouraged. She learnt her birth language, Northern Sami, as an adult. Since then, it has been her choice for writing.

“My poetry flows like a frozen river that has suddenly thawed,” she says. “I want above all to capture beautiful feelings that make me feel good as a human being. Our Sámi history is so sad.”

By the end of the seventies, Persen had committed herself to activist backing of the movement fighting for the Sámi rights and, together with other supporters of the cause, organised a hunger strike in front of the Norwegian parliament. Already during her studies at the Oslo Academy of Art, she was creating a Sámi banner that was the forerunner of their present flag.

A Desk at the End of the World. Photo: Synnøve Persen

There is a dictionary on her desk to assist her with translating her poems into Norwegian. She feels that it is essential to be surrounded by green plants: “Green is good for the soul,” she insists. The computer and its internet connection offer her means of staying in touch with the outside world.

She paints in a nearby studio and her inspiration is drawn from the fjord and the unique northern light. “I use a very special kind of blue – it is the colour of Porsanger.” To Persen, her home landscapes are the most beautiful in the world. Through her poetry and her painting, we are happily able to share her vision.

From the German by Anna Paterson.

More information

If you like to find more information about Synnøve Persens work, please visit her webside: www.synnovepersen.no

Synnøve Persen will appear in the Pavilion at Frankfurter Book Fair and has contributed to the exhibition House of Norway in the Museum for Applied Art (Museum für Angewandte Kunst)

More information about Sami literature and culture you'll find here.

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