"On the rock" - by Carl Wilhelmson, 1905

Se även: "Ebba Lindqvist möter carl Wilhelmson"


Utan att skratta
utan att gråta
betraktar fiskarna havet




From the left: Bernad Edman, sailor from Dragsmark - Per Berntsson, captain from Fiskebäckskil - Anton Christensson, captain - and Simon Olausson, fisherman

The haiku in english: without laugh/without cry/the fishermen watch The See
An Deutch: Keine lach, kein weinen/-ein gruppe fisher/zum Meer blickt

Carl Wilhelmson, swedish painter, 1866-1928














The father of Carl Wilhelmson, the great bohuspainter, was a captain on a fishingboat. Carl was only nine years old, and like mostly of the retiered captains and fishermen he use to go every morning and every evening to the millrock (Kvarnberget) in Fiskebäckskil to check out the whether, and see if he could discover a mast or a flag from his fathers fishingboat in the horizon.

This morning
This morning in september 1875, the older men on the Millrock had heard rumors that his father had died in a storm the nigth before, up north, outside Dyngö...but they did not have a heart strong enough, to tell the little boy the truth. But the same evening Carl went back to the millrock, and now he heard them whisper that his father was dead.

- Yes, he heard it from the fishermen...up on the millrock..."these fishermen, they just knew"...

The secret
With a horrible scream Carl run down from the millrock to his home...but he did not dear to tell his mother and his sisters. So he keept the secret for him self. Seven days later the official message arriwed from the city Lysekil: The captain and fisherman, Anders Wilhelmsson, was dead. The hole crew of the boats namne had drowend in the North See.

Seven days in hell
These seven days, how did they affected Carl Wilhelmsons life? Seven days of hell in a nine year old boys life. How did he feel when he walked the streets of Fiskebäckskil. How did he feel while listening to the seaguls. How did he feel keeping his tears not to reveal his secret.

And for how many years did the millrock, and The See, give him these kind of memories? Could he say to the See: - I hate you! Yes off cource, he could. But on the same time, the See had give him and his family their living for so many years..

Many years later
Well, many years later, when he was a respected painter, Carl Wilhelmson painted On the rock: four men, fishermen and captians, no classes separated, all together, watching the see. It feels me like a settlement, an closure, a sort of gesture of reconciliation towards the See - the See that give and take. You can hate it, oh yes, but you can´t change it, any how...


no laugh, no cry
whwen dead fishermens colegues
watch the see...






The house of Carl Wilhelmson

From this millrock (to the left) where On the rock is painted, it is close to Carls Wilhelmsons house (to the right) i Fiskebäckskil, on the swedish westcoast -such a beautiful and barren landscape that once belonged to Norway...

Input
This story about "On the rock" was told me by Lotta. Some facts is from a book by Sigvard Fjellsson.Sprakradet helped me with the translation, and Evert Taube give me inspiration from his great song...Briggen Blue Bird It I had read Seefart is Not, my understunding maby should be deeper.


* * *


While rowing - a fantasy...

This time it is about a adopted norwegian girl living in Båhuslan.


While rowing is a part of The Myth of the North See, and it´s all about loosing:

To tell or not, the truth.
To keep a tragedy inside yourself.
And how to deal whit it later in life...

Maby for a preformance in Skagen or Scotland...well, Keaton, detta var dagens suck, and I wish you a happy midsomer. Here is a another try to translate the haiku:



* * *


A painting about a painting
"When Carl Wilhelmson 1902 painted his famus "Juniafton", ( An evening in June) Anna Sahlström painted him during his work. This painting about a painting you can see onSahlströmsgården"
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