Mette Karlsvik

Reisebrev, Reykjavik - Ilulissat - Oqaatsu

Departure

Afgang

Aallariartortarfik

 

(the melting of greenlandic ice

is the melting of stories

of nature, culture, language)

 

In beginning there is myrkr

and in myrkr there is life;

her in myrkr lifer all,

lifer without end, thette dark.

 

Thesse myrkr men are draugar

never do they rest

never do they wear out

as they dont know night and day.

 

Black draug never grey go,

never from grey to kvit go,

never green to gul go

aldri gul to brown go.

 

Finally the face of death smiles;

yellow, above verölð stor:

- thenne salvation of fire;

never stop this burning ljós!

 

Genesis Greenland revisited

 

Genesis Greenland is spelled out on a horizon;

with ink of icebergs.

 

Genesis Greenland is spelled out with dramatic curves,

written from the perspective of the largest island of verölð stor.

 

The story of the making of life is spelled out with

ink that carries light.

 

The story of life, is the story of the making of death:

Light is what brings death with it. Death puts an end to endless,

haunted struggle of eternal living.

 

Meltdown Greenland is spelled

with ink a little more liquid every year passing.

 

Meltdown Greenland is the melting of

layers of layers of frozen and conserved natural, atmospherical history.

 

Is there comfort to find from the inuit viewpoint

when witnessing the melting of our archive of life?

 

Meltdown Greenland seen

in the light of the inuit tales of life and death:

 

Genesis Greenland; a naturalization of destruction,

of light, warmth, melting of ice.

 

Meltdown Greenland is Genesis Greenland reversed:

There is a dying of the dark, a continuation of light.

 

Oqaatsut - Ilulissat

 

Kalaallit Nunaat, the land of people, is 81% water.

Kalaalit Nunaat, used to be more water, fewer people.

I loved someone for being skin, bones, water.

I loved his inside, and what was on the outside. For the shine in his eyes, the directions of his wrinkles.

I loved Isfjorden for the depth of its wrinkles, for the depth of it all.

I loved the fjord for the shadows in its cracks, for facing all those endless winter nights. For facing all those sunlight days.

The face of experience and tests.

 

Greenland melting increases its depths.

So it seems from the viewpoint of the one that dives into it.

Greenland melting makes the fjord high.

So it seems from the viewpoint of Ilulissat valley.

The Ilulissat valley seems smaller

from the viewpoint of Disco Bay settlement.

Mountains losing height

for the inuits padelling between homes,

for polar bear swimming between homes.

The polar bear swims in a water less saline,

a water heavier.

The drowning of the polar bear

is the melting of yet another piece of natural history

into the waters of verölð stor,

The Earth, a planet of water.