I once was asked, \u201cWhat defines the North? What is Northernness?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLight, Dark, and Love,\u201d came my spontaneous reply. \u201cThat\u2019s what the North is to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Up here, summer and winter are periods when we live in concentrated light or darkness. Spring and fall are times of transition, and we are always aware of our exact position on the annual scale of light to dark. \u201cIt\u2019ll be lighter again soon,\u201d we say encouragingly to one another when December is darkest. \u201cWe\u2019ll be moving in the other direction soon.\u201d When summer comes, we glory in the bright evenings, the bright nights, but we know it won\u2019t be long before darkness descends again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although I grew up in the south of Sweden, for my entire adult life I have been interested in the north. For twenty years we had a cabin up in \u00c5ngermanland. That gave me new perspectives. Every summer I go hiking in the northern mountains, and in 1999 I had the opportunity to join a research expedition to the Canadian Arctic. For a month, I lived on an icebreaker vessel. I had to get used to seeing the world map as circumpolar, with the North Pole at its centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Light, Dark, and Love. What else is the North?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, in the far north multilingualism is very marked. Many lands and cultures come together here. Sweden, Norway, and Finland all meet at a point called Treriksr\u00f6set. The Sapmi region, traditionally inhabited by the Sami people, stretches across the entire Arctic area of the Scandinavian countries, from Norway in the west to the Kola Peninsula of Russia in the east. Here, people speak not only Sami but also Kven and Me\u00e4nkieli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus a piece for the ARcTic ensemble took shape that uses poems by Swedish poets, sung in Swedish, but translated into and recited in Sami. A piece about light, dark, and love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither the moon nor the sun nor the stars<\/p>\n\n\n\n gave me light<\/p>\n\n\n\n The darkness gave me light<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the light of love in me<\/p>\n\n\n\n through whose body its rays beam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Gunnar Ekel\u00f6f, translation Linda Schenck<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The moon floats silently in the night,<\/p>\n\n\n\n the clear sky is shimmering with stars,<\/p>\n\n\n\n shimmering over hill and water,<\/p>\n\n\n\n shimmering over you and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Karin Rehnqvist, transl. Robin Blanton<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where darkness was you are<\/p>\n\n\n\n and you bear light upon your shoulders,<\/p>\n\n\n\n where grief was you are<\/p>\n\n\n\n and joy shines yellow <\/p>\n\n\n\n as the dandelion at your heels,<\/p>\n\n\n\n where death was you are<\/p>\n\n\n\n and this is life,<\/p>\n\n\n\n yes, tremendous life<\/p>\n\n\n\n that I drink from the cup of your hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Sandro Key-\u00c5berg, transl. Robin Blanton<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Varken m\u00e5nen, solen eller stj\u00e4rnorna <\/p>\n\n\n\n gav mig ljus<\/p>\n\n\n\n Det var m\u00f6rkret som gav<\/p>\n\n\n\n Och k\u00e4rlekens ljus i mig<\/p>\n\n\n\n genom vars kropp dess str\u00e5lar g\u00e5r<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Gunnar Ekel\u00f6f, ur Sagan om Fatumeh<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n M\u00e5nen sv\u00e4var tyst i natten,<\/p>\n\n\n\n himlen skimrar stj\u00e4rnklar,<\/p>\n\n\n\n skimrar \u00f6ver berg och vatten,<\/p>\n\n\n\n skimrar \u00f6ver dig och mig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Karin Rehnqvist<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D\u00e4r m\u00f6rkret var \u00e4r du<\/p>\n\n\n\n och du b\u00e4r ljuset \u00f6ver dina skuldror,<\/p>\n\n\n\n d\u00e4r sorgen var \u00e4r du<\/p>\n\n\n\n och gl\u00e4djen lyser gul<\/p>\n\n\n\n som maskrosen vid dina h\u00e4lar,<\/p>\n\n\n\n d\u00e4r d\u00f6den var \u00e4r du<\/p>\n\n\n\n och det \u00e4r livet, <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/a>ja, det oerh\u00f6rda livet<\/p>\n\n\n\n som jag dricker ur dina h\u00e4nders kupa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Sandro Key-\u00c5berg<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n I once was asked, \u201cWhat defines the North? What is Northernness?\u201d \u201cLight, Dark, and Love,\u201d came my spontaneous reply. \u201cThat\u2019s what the North is to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-programme-notes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p79arM-BL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4296,"url":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/autumn-2026\/","url_meta":{"origin":2341,"position":0},"title":"Autumn 2026","author":"Kulturpartikeln","date":"October 5, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Upcoming performances during the autumn and winter.","rel":"","context":"In "Latest"","block_context":{"text":"Latest","link":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/category\/latest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/programme-note_cirkel_3A.png?fit=576%2C358&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2341"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2770,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions\/2770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2013 Karin Rehnqvist, February 2022<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"