<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So That French Guy walks in a Bar in Oslo<\/strong><\/p>\n That year, I decided to stay in Stavanger on the West Coast of Norway, as I had heard a lot of good things about the City –especially from Isioma Daniel, the journalist . And it was very possible that a French Guy would walk in a bar \u2026 I should have said: “Oh, actually, I know GK very well” … Anyway, back to Icelandic, Iceland and Gerthur Kristny and the bartender in Oslo – I did make it back to my hotel that night ====================== I read her note and almost cried. I could have fainted or drunk another couple of beers. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0Jean Wadier<\/strong> is a\u00a0 Translator, Writer, Poet, Editor who is originally from France;\u00a0 a US resident, he frequently visits Scandinavia. Curator of the Gleaner <\/a>. His main interest is translation of Modern French lit: http:\/\/jeanhenrisonwadier.wordpress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So That French Guy walks in a Bar in Oslo That year, I decided to stay in Stavanger on the West Coast of Norway, as I had heard a lot of good things about the City –especially from Isioma Daniel, the journalist . And, let’s face it: Norway is a very expensive country. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6424"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6426,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6424\/revisions\/6426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAnd, let’s face it: Norway is a very expensive country. You can take your life’s savings with you and you are lucky if you can stay one (1) month, one (1) week …
\nSo, here I was, after a few months on a farm, I had enough NOKs – Norwegian kroners- to travel some and stay some time in Oslo. I considered settling for a while in Norway (Norge Ubergresent)as a friend -musician offered to bustle in the streets of Oslo: I would have taken care of the money thing (picking up coins ans hopefully, bills people would leave while she played and sang). She is a music teacher and the deal seemed extremely exciting until she decided to retire in a monastery in the South of France for a while; c’est la vie …
\nOne night, I was in this bar and talking with the bartender. As custom has it, I exhausted the usual routine conversations: Norway, Scandinavia, Finland, the Northen\/ Norsk languages, Iceland, etc.
\n“I’m from Iceland ” he mentioned as I was sipping my first beer
\n“Oh yeah?” –said I, wondering very quickly what to say next and what I knew about this country.
\n“Well, Icelandic women are supposed to be beautiful, are they not? “I dumbly suggested — as if women are not beautiful in all Scandinavian countries ?
\nAs if women are not supposed to be beautiful in All Nordic Countries, in Finland and Iceland …
\nAs if women … As if all women are not supposed to be beautiful , period … should I add now, before my feminist friend kicks me where it hurts! yes, thats’ what I meant …
\nYes, what a sexist clich\u00e9, right? Woman = Beautiful
\nMan = Ugly & Dumb …
\nWell, anyway, here we were discussing various stupid things – such as Iceland, Vulcanoes, Ice and Fire, Bjork (another feminist clich\u00e9) and languages: Norsk, Icelandic.
\n\u00ab\u00a0Actually, I happen to know of one Icelandic poet: Gerthur Kristny.\u00a0\u00bb
\n“Who ?” –retorted my Icelandic bartender. “Gerdur Krristny “, I tried again, rolling my ‘r’s and stresssing the ‘th’ which may be better pronounced as ‘d’ by a foreigner.
\nOh ” G –K –” he repeated the name.
\nYes, exactly.
\nI was exhausted by then, as the second beer usually kills me and that’s how far my bar\/pub exploits usually end.
\n” I actually know Gerthur Kristny\u00a0”
\n-“Oh, really ? ” thinking: yeah, right …but the thought hit me that Iceland is, in deed, a very small country- Population: 300 000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n
\nand, during a conversation, mention the only Icelandic person he knew and that the bartender he was talking to \u2026 would know that person.
\nI don’ t think I said that aloud, but, might have commented on \u00ab\u00a0how friendly Iceland is\u00a0\u00bb .. And, \u00ab\u00a0how connected people seem, much more so than in Europe.\u00a0\u00bb
\n\u00ab Well, the barman continued \u2013 actually, she was my roommate when I was a student in Rejkjavik \u00bb (yeah, right -again)
\n\u00ab -Well, of course! \u00bb or \u00ab well, really? \u00bb -more likely.
\nAs I was getting really pissed, and my ‘discernement’, as they say in my Cartesian homecountry, was starting to fade.
\n\u00ab Yeah, she lived across my room in the hallway \u00bb
\nDid he say? \u00ab she lived in the same house \u00bb
\nor\u00ab she lived across the street \u00bb maybe, \u00ab she was my roommate \u00bb
\nRemember, the conversation took place
\na) between an Icelandic bartender and a French translator travelling in Scandinavia
\nb) the conversation included 1- French words 2- English 3-Icelandic and other words with a very tired host under the influence of err, alcohol.<\/p>\n
\nwould I be the Boisterous Gallic type. But, I just muttered: ” I have read a couple of poems by GK”
\nThe truth is: I have known the existence of GK since the Icelandic Revolution.
\nYou may remember: a few years ago, Iceland went bankrupt and the whole country …
\n(for those people\/readers
\nwho have not been following: Iceland ‘s population is : 300 000 people)
\nThe whole country erupted then; riots ensued and large crowds would convene every day in front of the Parliament
\nand speeches were held, in Icelandic, that is …
\nG K was among the speakers and she was that woman I watched once on YouTube
\non the Internet
\nShe seemed irate, very articulate
\nand uttered words which seemed un-be-lie-va-ble
\nHow on earth could a woman, any person
\npronounced such words?
\nIt was beyond my understanding !
\nI have had enough trouble with English, and at college
\n–at the time when Gerthur and her bartender were attending Rejkjavik University
\nI could remember fighting-verbally- with a phonetics prof ‘
\nwho held us in contempt and thought that Linguistics
\nshoud be a compulsory credit;
\nHe thus tortured us every week
\nwith un-speakable deeds, demanding tests … and other un-believable requirements
\ninvolving the ‘Prayer’ in Old English
\nwhich may sound actually like Old Norsk
\nI dare not say: which sounds like Old Norsk
\nfor fear that this Old Prof would come back haunting me with a whip.<\/p>\n
\nwhich was my topic today, right?
\nGK made those speeches and I finally sent her a note
\n“What’s happening?
\nI heard\/watched your speech today …
\nwhat is it you’re saying?
\nshe kindly responded that it had to do
\nwith the Revolution, people were fed up
\nwith the bankers and a few other things.
\nThat’s how I was familiar with her name
\nand even read one of her poems
\naptly called: The Prayer.<\/p>\n
\nas Icelandic Gods and Godesses filled my dreams or –were they nightmares?
\nAnd, I woke up, went back home a few days later.
\nI sent a Wish Well card –or Happy New Year card to Ms. GK a few months later;
\nand I did mention the Oslo episode. She responded:<\/p>\n
\nDear Jean!
\nThis is such a special story for me because the bartender F\u00fasi (as we used to call him) died a few weeks ago. His classmates met again at his funeral. He was a special teenager, very intelligent.
\nAll the best
\nGer\u00f0ur
\n====================<\/p>\n
\nThis memory might have faded away somewhat; My Blog about Iceland is now closed: to my eternal shame, Vox –the Blog-host, at the time, collapsed;
\n[ no connection with Iceland’s bankruptcy ]
\nthey warned everybody but I paid no heed …
\nSo, Iceland went kaput, my (2) Blogs with Vox vanished into cyberspace;
\nthe other one was devoted to Tea and Tea-ism * and was called Camellia Sinensis
\nbut I’ll never forget that night and I learned a couple of things:
\nNever Take Anything for Granted !
\nThe bartender you’re talking with is a hero of sorts
\nThe Poet you wrote to is a Creator
\nand, yes, he\/she will understand you, she will read your words.
\nYou may think otherwise and Take Life lightly:
\nDon’t.
\nWe are all Human Beings; We are all connected.
\nHave another beer;
\nF\u00fasi is with us.<\/p>\n