Fra storytelleren to you!

FROM THE STORYTELLER TO YOU!

ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN ITALICS


I april slangede Karen Blixen sig over fyldepennen i Jørn Villumsens streg.

In April the author Karen Blixen posed on her pen as drawn by Jørn Villumsen.

De guddommelige instrumenter: Fortællegenet, pennen og blækket deler hun med bladtegneren, og hvor hun bruger sine kaffere som bevægelsesled til fortællingens komposition, har Jørn Villumsen sine ænder.

Ikke hvilkesomhelst-ænder, men derimod Viggo Vagnbys navnkundige Wonderful Copenhagen-plakat over en andemor og hendes ællinger, hvoraf den yngste, tumlingen, knapt kan følge med, men hvad gør det, for hele det moderne livs bevægelse - cyklisterne, den gule sporvogn, byens tårne, politiet - lader sig sætte i stå med et stort smil, og giver andemor den tid, hun har brug for.

The divine instruments: the narrator's gift, pen and ink all of which she shares with the cartoonist and while she staged her Kenyan employees as a means to set her tales in motion, so Jørn Villumsen has his ducks.

Not just any ducks, but the renowned "Wonderful Copenhagen" poster by Viggo Vagnby from 1953/57, on a mother duck and her ducklings, the youngest of whom is tumbling along barely able to keep up. But no matter, because the movement of modern life - cyclists, the yellow tram, the towers, policeman – is at a standstill with a big smile, giving mother duck all the time she needs.

Trafikhellen er der endnu / The traffic island is still there

Half of the Danes have lost trust in the police.
- Oh, policeman, where art thou?

Byen har altid haft sine stædige ænder, der på denne årstid år efter år begynder at gå i retning af vand, så snart afkommet kan stå på benene. En handling blottet for angst, især den eksistentielle, for trangen til vand kalder højest. 

Det giver fast arbejde til en brandmand med papkasse, men som en anden deus ex machina giver det også et vist brud på dramaet, når det uløselige pludselig alligevel går op, fordi en arm rækker ind fra oven og løfter de små ud af faren. Andemors vandfærd er dog kampen for overlevelse, som trodser alt.

The city has always had its stubborn ducks that at this season year after year are moving towards water as soon as the offspring is hatched. It is an action devoid of anxiety, especially of the existential sort, in that the urge for water wins every time.

It provides steady work for a firefighter with a cardboard box, but just like a deus ex machina he is also a rupture to the drama when the unsolvable suddenly finds its happy ending in the arm from above lifting the little ones out of danger. The mother duck's quest for water is after wall the struggle for survival that defies everything.

For en gangs skyld er det da også kun i den virkelige verden, at hjælpen er at finde. I den tegnede, hos Jørn Villumsen står kun trafikhellen tilbage som en plet af det gode, men uden magt i et parallelunivers, hvor affaldscontainerne ulmer af vrede og røgen bryder tegningskanten. Politibilerne puffer blå blink i små støvpuder og krydser skudvinkler, der tilsammen danner et mønster af lag på lag på samme måde, som en fortælling folder sig ud over tid. 

Jørn Villumsens streg har en spinkelhed, der giver mindelser om Ole Lund Kirkegaard og Arne Ungermann før ham, og ikke synes at løfte sig fra papiret mens den indkredser småbitte detajler i det tilsyneladende enkle. Den gule bus med flagene er i Vagnbys ånd altid nr. 127. 

For once it is indeed only in the real world that help is to be found. In the world of cartooning by Jørn Villumsen there is but the traffic island left as a spot of moral good, although powerless in a parallel universe where waste containers are simmering with anger and smoke breaks the border of the drawings. Police cars puffs blue flashes in small dust clouds while bullets cross the picture plane from all corners all of which form a pattern of layers in the same way as a story unfolds over time.

Jørn Villumsen is drawing in a line with a slenderness to it that is reminiscent of the Danes Ole Lund Kirkegaard and Arne Ungermann before him. His pen seems to have stayed on the paper while coiling a huge amount of tiny details onto a plane that at first sight appears to be uncomplicated. The yellow bus with the flags is in the spirit of Vagnby always No. 127.

Det var et uforglemmeligt uskyldstab, da dansk myndighed på egen grund blev tilsidesat af Et Højere Væsen: George W., daværende amerikansk krigsfører. Hans sikkerhedsfolk medbragte våben af en selvtillid, der ikke havde brug for at bevise lyd. Til gengæld er skudhullet så kolossalt, at der også er hul i skyggen. 

It was an unforgettable loss of innocence when the Danish authorities were whooshed aside at home by a Higher Being, George W., the then American warlord. His security brought weapons of a confidence that did not even feel the need to make a noise. The wound is on the other hand so enormous that even the shadow is hollowed. 

Hvorefter Danmark blev en krigsførende nation, hvor bylivet blev tilsidesat af den daværende udenrigsminister, mens statsministeren tromlede ændernes rute. Tankvolden bekræftede, at ænderne hele tiden har fortalt verdenspolitik.

After which Denmark became a warring nation where city life was brushed aside by the then Foreign Secretary, while the Prime Minister severed the ducks' route. The tank violence confirmed that the ducks had been telling world politics all along.

Og så nåede ænderne vandet. I omgivelser, der ikke kunne være mere indfødt københavnske med bugtende bygninger, Dronning Louises Bro, der netop krydses af en hoppende bybus nr. 127 - med flag - kun for at opdage, at vandet er tykt af fosfor dannet af kilovis af bagerbrød, som af hjertens baretklædte godhed kastes ud til dem.

Det er det, som museerne også frygter mest: Pensionister.

And so the ducks reached water. In an environment so very native Copenhagen with its meandering buildings, that very bridge, on which a bouncing bus No. 127 - with flags – has just been crossing. Only to discover that the water is thick with phosphorus caused by kilos of pastry, thrown to the ducks by the personification of alas, goodness.

This is too what the museums fear the most: Ladies of a certain age.

De er hårdføre de ænder, som Søernes overflade.

They are hardy, those ducks, as hardy as the surface of the city ponds. 

TAK til Jørn Villumsen for tilladelse til at vise hans tegnekunst. Vi kan ikke vente på næste kapitel af ændernes videre færd.

A very special thank you to Jørn Villumsen for his permission to show his works. We cannot wait for the next chapter on the ducks and their onward journey.