Finn Christian Stabel Strømsted (June 9, 1925 – July 4, 2003) was a Norwegian poet and visual artist. He made his debut in 1956 with the poetry collection Angelicafløyten. He has published around ten poetry collections, the last publication being En fugl har tent meg (1995). He has also written books about the Sami adventure tradition and a photo book from the pebble island of Målen. As a visual artist, Finn Strømsted mainly painted figuratively, most often abstracted interpretations of landscapes on the southern coast and western Norway. In addition, he was active as a graphic artist and book illustrator.
Strømsted took jobs alternately as a gardener, teacher, sailor, and horse groomer before debuting as a poet. At about the same time, he settled in Kalvøysund near Arendal, where he lived for several years and, to some extent, ran subsistence farming. Some of his finest pictures are abstracted landscapes from the coast of Southern Norway and Jæren. The poetry book “Målen. En rullestensøy” (Målen. A Pebble Island) (1977) also draws its material from the home regions. Otherwise, the North Sea and the North Calotte are essential in his dictating geography. There is an apparent longing for something original, primordial, or at least pre-capitalist in Strømsted’s poetry.
One of his distinctive features as a poet is the free exchange between language forms. A sober national language is the primary goal, but several poems are written in the dialectal Nynorsk, Icelandic, Swedish, and even Spanish, respectively. The motif circle is vast, but the city and industrial society are only peripherally present. He sings of the sea and untouched nature, initially in almost neo-romantic tones, gradually more soberly and with increasing ecological awareness. His respect for the indigenous people’s way of life contains a fundamental, pessimistic critique of civilization.
Altogether, Strømsted published 15 collections of poems, including “Dikt i utvalg” (Collected Poems). Many of the books are illustrated with his drawings and watercolors.
Poems
Translated from Norwegian to English by Anja Høvik Strømsted
I nøden
I nødens tid er øyeblikket
videt ut,
som et jaget dyrs pupill,
som aftenlys bredd ut
på vindløs sjø.
I nødens tid er hvert sekund
en ung og sol-grønn ø
In need
In times of need the moment is
widened out,
like the pupil of a hunted animal,
as evening light spread out
on a windless sea.
In times of need every second is
a young and sun-green island.
Bidevind (Windward) (1961)
Stein-tid
bedre å dikte om fossiler
enn å gjøre diktningen fossil
Å være stein
slippe
å bli forstenet
hva smykker ravet seg med?
en gyllen hårdhet
å være det strålende
blikk
av sort glimmer
å se tiden i øynene –
Stone time
better to write about fossils
than to make the poetry fossil
To be stone
not
to be petrified
What does the amber jewel itself with
a golden hardness
to be the radiant
gaze
of black mica
to look time in the eyes –
Susquehanna blues (Susquehanna Blues) (1971)
Books
Art Works
