‘Nordhavn offings’: Writing with/in (three) languages [haibun]

Abstract

Navigating between terse prose passages and the intense poetic images of the haibun, I use this hybrid form, which itself transcends cultural and generic boundaries, to reflect on my creative practice as an academic author, literary translator, research-based poet and writing tutor. Translanguaging, transreading and transwriting are akin to feeling at sea not because of the proverbial loss of direction, but because the visible sea at a distance offers safety from inshore dangers. Such offings become translocal waters of playful experiments which may assist public and private cartographies