Driftwood 7 00

Driftwood 7 00

I bet there is NO ONE who reads this comic and actually knows where “Navigare Autem” comes from. Mwa hah haa …

Actually, it is from a poem by the Finnish poet Pentti Saarikoski, who used to be a sailor in his youth. Quite many of his early works are based on his experiences as a sailor. The full poem in Finnish:

NAVIGARE AUTEM

Olen lähtevä
joka aamu lähden harhailemaan
vedet öljyiset
ne vaarallisetko
ja kauniit kanavat

vesi suustani virtaa
vesi silmistäni
vesi korvistani
ja sieraimistani virtaa
ich bin die Welt
ich bin das Meer

Se mies josta tarina kertoo
eikö hän ole kuin lohikäärme
tuli luokseni vesiä pitkin
taltuttaen vedet sanallaan

Mitta minä tarvitsen purren
itseni luota itseni luokse
Mutta minä tarvitsen purren
luiselta rannalta luiselle merelle
Mutta minä tarvitsen purren

(My crappy English translation:

I am leaving
every morning I leave to wander about
the oily waters
dangerous, they say
and the beautiful canals

the water flows out of my mouth
water from my eyes
water from my ears
and from my nostrils it flows
ich bin die Welt
ich bin das Meer

The man this story tells of
is he not like a dragon
he came to me across the waters
taming the waters with his word

But I need a boat
to take me from myself to myself
But I need a boat
from the bony shore to the bony ocean
But I need a boat)


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