Amina Elmi, Denmark, transl. Bogusława Sochańska

2026: Amina Elmi

Jakub Kornhauser about the volume “With All My Love”:

Amina Elmi writes with ardour about the most fundamental matters: the right to self-determination, the constant search for one’s own place and identity, responsibility for one’s words and actions, sisterhood, love and, finally, violence, war and prejudice, including those motivated by religion. She does so from the perspective of a migrant, a Danish woman of Somali descent, but also of someone who has more to say about the world than others – those who, benefiting from comfort, do not have to fight for anything. At the same time, the poet effortlessly reconciles the categorical nature of a political stance with a surprising gentleness of description – particularly when she speaks of those closest to her, focusing on small, genre-like scenes. She then reveals herself as a tender observer of everyday life – all the more tender for being, in her ‘basic’ diction, a sharp critic of androcentrism (and all forms of elitism). Translator Bogusława Sochańska copes superbly with the diversity of Elmi’s poetics, interweaving subtle, ‘family’ sequences with passages of a sneering, mocking tone. She is able to capture the musicality of the phrasing, its spoken, sometimes shouted character, as well as the multiplicity of references to Danish socio-political reality and to cultural intertexts, including ethnic, gender and religious diversity. The result is impressive both because of the artistic merits of Elmi’s poetry and its powerful, topical message. The author deftly moves along the borders of genres, linguistic registers and cultural traditions, drawing, with equal success, on the tradition of Somali – or more broadly African-Islamic – poetry and the conventions of a spoken-word manifesto. In doing so, she demonstrates that contemporary poetry infused with tradition can be an intricately woven palimpsest.

 

In the reasoning behind the verdict, we read:

Born in Somalia, the Danish poet Amina Elmi studied English in Aalborg and graduated from the Copenhagen writers’ school. She is well acquainted with European culture and moves through it with ease, and yet she has not so far found a place of her own within Danish society.

The poetry collection With All My Love is a moving testimony to the fate of an immigrant who is rejected and excluded, and who longs to find a home in Europe and take responsibility for it. In her rebellion, she holds up a mirror to us, while at the same time extending a hand, opening a path towards a shared life and struggle, as well as a love free from social violence, as evidenced by her beautiful erotic poems, pure in their lyricism.

Amina Elmi’s affecting poems are an angry yet empathetic voice of the global majority living in Europe. This voice has often been heard among the finalists of the Gdańsk award, and now, for the first time, it reaches for the highest honour of the European Poet of Freedom.

 

The book was co- financed by the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of Culture Promotion Fund.

Amina Elmi

AMINA ELMI (b. 1994) is a Danish poet of Somali descent. Born in Somalia, she has lived in Denmark since the age of three, after her parents emigrated there with their six children. She studied English at Aalborg University and graduated from the Copenhagen writers’ academy Forfatterskolen. Her acclaimed debut poetry collection, Barbar [tavshedens objekt] (Barbarian [the object of silence]), was published in 2023, receiving the prestigious Danish debut award. Soon after, it was released in Sweden and Norway.

Photo by Sara Galbiati / Gyldendal Medie 2023

Bogusława Sochańska

A graduate of Danish philology at Adam Mickiewicz University, BOGUSŁAWA SOCHAŃSKA worked as an assistant and lecturer at its Department of Scandinavian Studies from 1980 to 1995, specialising in Danish literature, translation studies, and the Danish language. From 1995 to 1999, she served as attaché and cultural counsellor at the Polish embassy in Copenhagen, and later as director of the Danish Cultural Institute in Poland (1999–2020). Since 2021, she has run the DRIADA School of Scandinavian Languages and co-managed the Driada Publishing House. Sochańska is a member of the Polish Writers’ Association and the Polish Literary Translators Association.