We listen daily to the sonic coins

provided every one of us and played

through the Finger-singer worn on the left hand.

We trade coins of diverse denominations:

and all of them play all that they contain

and though a dyma 1 scarcely weighs one grain

it plays out like a cricket on each hand

blanching here in this distraction-land.

}}

The first 29 cantos of Aniara had previously been published in Martinson's collection Cikada (1953), under the title Sången om Doris och Mima (The Song of Doris and Mima),^[2] relating the departure from Earth, the accidental near-collision with an asteroid (incidentally named Hondo, another name for the main Japanese isle where Hiroshima is situated) and ejection from the solar system, the first few years of increasing despair and distractions of the passengers, until news is received of the destruction of their home port (and perhaps of Earth). According to Martinson, he dictated the initial cycle as in a fever after a troubling dream, affected by the Cold War and the Soviet suppression of the 1956 Hungarian revolution; in another version, the first 29 cantos were said to be inspired by an astronomic observation of Andromeda Galaxy.^[2]

One of the major themes explored is the nature and necessity of art, symbolised by the semi-mystical machinery of the Mima, who relieves the ennui of crew and passengers with scenes of far-off times and places, and whose operator is also the sometimes naïve main narrator. The rooms of Mima, according to Martinson, represent different kinds of life styles or forms of consciousness.^[9] The accumulated destruction the Mima witnesses impels her to destroy herself in despair, to which she, the machine, is finally moved by the white tears of the granite melted by the phototurb which annihilates their home port, the great city of Dorisburg. Without the succour of the Mima, the erstwhile colonists seek distraction in sensual orgies, memories of their own and earlier lives, low comedy, religious cults, observations of strange astronomical phenomena, empty entertainments, science, routine tasks, brutal totalitarianism, and in all kinds of human endeavour, but ultimately cannot face the emptiness outside and inside.

In form, the poems are metrical and mostly rhymed, using both traditional and individual forms, several alluding to a wide range of Swedish and Nordic poetry, such as the Finnish Kalevala.

Adaptations

An opera by Karl-Birger Blomdahl also called Aniara premiered in 1959 with a libretto by Erik Lindegren based on Martinson's poem; it was staged in Stockholm, Hamburg, Brussels and Darmstadt, and later in Gothenburg and Malmö.^[6]

Swedish musician Kleerup released an album based on Aniara in 2012.

A melding of Aniara and Beethoven's opera Fidelio was staged by the Opéra de Lyon under the direction of American artist Gary Hill in 2013.^[7]

The fourth album from the Swedish progressive metal band Seventh Wonder called The Great Escape is based on Aniara.

A Swedish feature film by directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja, starring Emelie Jonsson, was released in 2018, premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival.^[8]

Translations

Aniara was translated into English as Aniara, A Review of Man in Time and Space by Hugh MacDiarmid and E. Harley Schubert^[9] in 1956. It was translated again into English by Stephen Klass and Leif Sjöberg for a 1999 edition. The book is not currently in print.

Reception

Cultural references

The poem was referenced in Vernor Vinge's hard science fiction novel A Fire Upon the Deep.

It was also an influence for Poul Anderson's hard science fiction novel Tau Zero.

The song "On aika soittaa sinfonia" ("It's time to play a symphony") on the Finnish rock musician Tuomari Nurmio's critically acclaimed 1982 album Punainen Planeetta ("The Red Planet") is inspired by the poem.{{cn|date=February 2016}}

The Swedish progressive metal band Seventh Wonder's album The Great Escape (2010) contains a 30-minute track of the same name which is based on the Aniara saga.

References