Alex Mepham

Alex Mepham is a writer and translator based in York, UK. Alex was awarded the 2023 Northern Debut Award for Poetry by New Writing North, received third place in the 2024 Disabled Poets Prize for Best Single Poem with Spread the Word, and was longlisted in the 2023 National Poetry Competition with The Poetry Society. Alex has had their poems and translations appear in various journals including Magma, The Stinging Fly, fourteen poems, Prototype, and Under the Radar, among others. Alex has translations appearing in Modern Poetry in Translation, and is a member of the 2023/24 Emerging Translators Mentorship cohort with the National Centre for Writing. Website: amepham.carrd.co.

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Giv Oss O Herre

—after Gunvor Hofmo

giv oss a word o give us something to grasp

o here here where our emptiness unfurls as fleeting as the

öppnade leaves of the birch tree an offering we know before your

ögon is not worthy o you know our hearts

vi want to be close to you

vill se you

jesus with our own eyes want to

vidröra you cling to you and not to

honom who steals and cheats o

lär oss att lyssna through the horrific silence inside of us o teach us to

höra hans stemma o

giv oss         what you gave to moses

o herre         even what you gave to job unveil yourself before our

öppnade ögon we pray

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Hans Nielsen Hauge

We meet for lovsang

in the Hauges Minne building,

the memory of Hauge

emblazoned at every station

of how he traipsed on foot

from town to town,

by til by, preaching

the benefits of sobriety,

of not hitting your wife,

of how to care for your horse

in a godly way, with levende tro.

How despite the strife

and persecution, accusations

of witchcraft, violating

konventikkelplakaten 1741,

he persisted, instructing the living faith

to all who would listen.

We are reminded that it is him

who made the land what it is today:

rich in spirit and faith,

trofasthet, rettferdighet, evident

in our national wealth, oljefondet

and our sikkerhet of a people,

secure to drink our kaffe

and eat our kake after our lovsang

til Herren who gave us so much.

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