The Owner of the Sea by British poet Richard Price, published by Carcanet, is a poetic retelling of three Inuit stories. It’s not a translation of those stories. They are based on folk stories told by elders and some other sources such as tales by the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen. Price describes them as “poetry based on prose translations of live storytelling.” If you thought Inuit busy themselves with fishing and chewing seal skin all day long, let these poem refresh your perspective!
Richard Price
RICHARD PRICE is a poet, novelist, and curator. His collections include Lucky Day, Small World and Moon for Sale (all published by Carcanet): his topics are modern families and modern relationships; his forms are various but he says "essentially lyric with musical/expressionist edges." He is Head of Contemporary British Collections at the British Library in London.
The Owner of the Sea by Richard Price
Montale and Martins
Translated by Richard Price
Haul your paper ships up the scorched shore
and then sleep, little-boy captain –
may you never hear the evil spirits
sailing now in flocks.
