Paraphrase

Paraphrase

Translation, easy I thought and set about
putting my English poems into Nordic suits.
Pale verses I got like watery coffee and
stale croissant, till I change the setting to
the street I grew up in where our parents
worked in fish factories, smoking herrings
or putting sardines into little tins.

Laud and healthily vulgar, my verses were
reborn, red cheeked and strong; no one
speaks like that anymore in a world where
everyone has gone middleclass, yes, even
the bloke who sleeps in a cardboard box in
the doorway of the town’s toyshop, mind
his language when told to move on.