Asger Schnack

Poet

1949

Denmark

Asger Schnack er en grand old man indenfor den moderne danske litteratur. Siden udgivelsen af digtsamlingen Øjeæbler i 1967 har han udgivet romaner, flere digtsamlinger, børnebøger, essaysamlinger og biografier samt redigeret adskillige antologier og tekstsamlinger. Hans litteratur bevæger sig gennem genrer og emner samtidig med at den bevarer nærværet.

Således er Asger Schnack en person, der navigerer rundt i litteraturens landskab som oplevelsesrejsende forfatter og digter, som guidende underviser på Forfatterskolen og som kortlæggende forlægger med forlaget Swing og senere Bebop. Asger Schnack har endvidere skrevet sammen med Klaus Høeck og F. P. Jac.

Under World Wide Words kan Asger Schnack opleves på Juul med Manifest for en ny roman og Talkaoke.

English Extract of Ager Schnacks book “Aqua”

we operate with the joyful concepts don’t know for example
words like dissimulation or jealousy it is
another war we are fighting it is the direct
connection it is a language filled to the brim with
words like applejuice waterfall and rubbertree

like children who have their eyes full of the world and don’t
let themselves be disturbed like an automatic machinegun
loaded with polaroid shots from an endless summer
or like a library reading room lined with absorbent cotton and
not a single piece of news about perverse torture

we have examined the world and we have taken a stand
we are to be found in the impossible combination and
nowhere else we are not afraid to use love
we are not through with it no matter how many times
the shadow of the third world war appears on the horizon

there are front pages and there is the terrible truth
and we look with open eyes at the marching army
of newsbulletins but our hands are tied by our confidence in
a sexual liberation sometime in a coming language
well then that’s our method because we have thought about it

in our hearts it’s raining a silent rain of classical
poetry and punk we can show our powerlessness
and can deny the existence of anything but grapes
we can discuss the meaning of the word victory we can
bring it in doubt and we can besiege beauty in order to survive 

translated by Alexander Taylor and Asger schnack

from: aqua (curbstone press 1982)
original text in: kvint (gyldendal 1980)