Letter
10 Pages
Transcription: Siri Katinka Valdez
Translation: Francesca Nichols
Transcription
Tekst opp ned, og vertikalt nedover venstre side:
P.S
Af mangel paa smaapenge vedlægges
Kr 65 – istedenfor 64, som regningen lyder pa, at trække af paa min gjæld til dig!
Kjære Kramer!
Ja, jeg lovede at skrive igjen
snart, – det blev jo ikke
noget hyggeligt brev, dù fik –
sidst, – det var vist bare om
min sykdom. Ja, denne bron-
kitten tager mig igjen gang paa
gang, – jeg blir aldrig kvitt den;
jeg har bare været ùde en dag, og det
tok haardt paa mig. Men nù skal
jeg ikke plage dig med mine elendig-
heder. Jeg er begyndt at "trykke" lidt
men orker lidet – blir straks træt og
forpùsten. –––
Ja nù skal dù höre, hvordan det
er gaaet med radio apparatet, som
jeg nù faar begynde at betale paa. –
(<"Fiskermanden"> var jo en begyndelse)
2
Som dù veed, har jo flere forsögt
sig paa dette aparatet forùden dù: – Lille-
Per Kramer, – Gùnnar Sandal og
nù i höst ogsaa Prytz, men ùden
noget resultat. En sövnlös nat
fandt jeg paa at klùsse med det, –
satte en korke-skive ind mellem
fjærene i telefonkoblingerne og fik
da alle 3 lamper til at lyse samti-
dig, selv naar telefonkoblingerne blev
sat pa. (Bror Peter, som i sommer
ogsaa arbeidede forgjæves med ap-
paratet, – paastod, at der maatte være
en koblingsfeil ensteds). Imidler-
tid hörte jeg endnù intet, – men
saa fòr jeg over alle koblinger
med nippetangen, og de som var af
isoleret traad, tok jeg væk og satte
nye i steden. Enden af spolerne klip-
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pede jeg en tomme af og koblede
igjen, – saa snùdde jeg alle ebonit-
haandtakene – (eller hvad de kaldes)
saa langt til venstre, som de
gik – og plùdselig hörte jeg, men
det var vanskeligt at indstille,
da "haandtaket" – (regùlatoren)
for spolerne er "lös" og aldrig vil
staa der, den blir sat; – der er like-
som "fjærart" i den, men ved at
"stivholde" den, kùnde vi höre al-
deles udmærket til slùt, – særlig
England og Sverige og ùnder-
tiden Tyskland – sjældnere Dan-
mark og Oslo og aldrig Bergen.
Jo engang hörtes det ùd til, at
vi havde faaet tak i Bergen: –
vi hörte en samtale paa "kav"
Bergensk; – men det hörtes
nærmest ud til at være en
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privat telefonsamtale, som paa
en eller anden mærkelig maade
er bleven "kringkastet". – Det var
nemlig en, som spurgte en anden
om, hvorledes det gik med forretnin-
gen el. lign. "OK de e barre sjit op aa
lort i mente – aa ikje er
her nokken tilförsel norren-
i fra heller". –––
En anden gang skùlde det trolig
ogsaa være Bergen, – endskjönt
han, som talte, havde udpræget
östlands dialekt; – det var sent
paa kveld, – vor klokke var heni-
mod ½ – 12, – og han, som talte,
ùnderviste i engelsk: "Hùsk en-
delig paa at dette ord altid maa
skrives med stor bogstav paa en-
gelsk – jeg ser nemlig" – (sa han saa
5
med mere dæmpet stemme) "at
dere to smaapiger der henne
har skrevet det med smaatt."
Og saa lagde han i vei med at for-
klare forskjellen paa "to go" og
"to walk", – og saa siger han:
"Tænk dere nù, at dere skal gaa
en spadsertùr op til Nestùn" o.sv. ––.
Ja det var det sidste ord, som
gjorde mig opmærksom, – saa
at jeg troede, det maatte være Ber-
gen; – thi man kùnde ikke anden-
steds tale om en spadsertùr til Nestùn
Jeg mærkede mig pladsen baade for
spolernes og kondensatorens vedkom-
mende, – men fik aldrig senere
höre noget fra Bergen. ––
Det vi hörte bedst var en afholds-
prædikant i Sverige, som forbande-
de denne "bankoen" med en
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brutal skùrrende stemme kveld
efter kveld – og forovrigt "male-
de fanden paa væggen" i svenske
arbeiderhjem. Saa hörte vi al-
deles udmærket de svenske profes-
sorers taler baade ved "högskùle-
jùbilæet" og ùniversitets jubilæet.
Ligeledes hörte vi godt veirvars-
lingerne fra Oslo og telegram-
merne derfra, – noget som vi se-
nere fik se ordlydende igjen i "Tid.
Tegn." Undertiden hörte vi mùsik
og sang fra en svensk kabaret, –
men dette blev oftest forstyrret af
"afholdsprædikanten", som kom frem
paa de mest forskjellige bölgelængder,
ja endog til – ùden antenne! – her var
nemlig en nat frygtelig torden og
lynild, og jeg stængte af antennen
over paa jordledningen, – og næste
kveld hùskede jeg ikke dette,
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og koblede batterier og telefon
som vanligt og hörte altsaa ùten
antenne baade afholdsprædikanten
og lidt engelsk "jass" – (altsaa
de ting man mindst önskede); –
men der var et saadant spek-
takkel i aparatet, at jeg vilde
opgive at lytte mer den kveld,
men saa huskede jeg, at antennen
var koblet over paa jordledningen,
og siden fùngerede alt bra, – da
jeg ordned dette om igjen. –––
Som sagt engelsk "jass" og engelske
kabaretter eller lign. – – disse
forbandede stykker med "snakk"
og sang om hinanden – ofte paa
samme tid, – det var det meste
vi hörte. En kveld hörte vi ùsed-
vanlig godt en slik engelsk historie.
Engel og og jeg sat da alene, og saa
vilde vi finde noget andet, og jeg
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lod da Engel faa lov at "lete",
medens jeg ledte op min pipe.
Men da var det pludselig slùtt
med alt og har været slutt siden.
Kan det tænkes at Engel har
dreiet for sterkt frem og tilbake
paa spolerne og kanske "vùndet af"
traaden? Jeg synes, det var rart,
at alt skulde slutte bare 5 min.
efter, at vi havde hört bedre end
nogensinde. Jeg har tænkt mig
at det flade batteri – (med alle
törr elementerne) kan være noget
galt med; thi lamperne lyser svært
svagt nesten ikke. Det höie batteri med de to glas-
tanker har jeg fyldt vand paa, og det
ser ud til at fungere bra. Alle kob-
linger er i orden, – og jeg hörer af og
til ganske svagt "morsingerne".
Naar jeg blir lidt bedre, – jeg er nemlig
daarlig af bronkitten endnù, – saa vil jeg
gaa over aparatet grùndig og forsöke
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om jeg kan faa skrùet lös spolerne.
Som dù kanske erindrer, er spole-
kapselen klövet – sprùkket tvers
over; – men det kan vel ikke
have noget at sige, – det har jo
været saaledes hele tiden og har
neppe forværret sig. ––
Jeg var nù borte og prövede det igjen, –
men nù lyser ikke lampene det
spor, – det maa da antagelig
være batterietrne, som slaar feil.
Jeg forsögte nù det "flade" batteri (med
alle törelementerne) og ved at före po-
lerne sammen, fik jeg et helt lidet lyn
saa violet og sterkt, – at det batteri kan
ikke feile noget, – det maa da være
i det andet – at "elektrolyten" mùli-
gens er bleven for svak, – det fùngerede
ùdmærket, efter at jeg fyldte vand paa
men nù er der ikke den mindste "gnist"
at opdage. – Jeg tænkte paa at tilsætte
salmiak, men tör ikke gjöre dette,
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förend jeg faar vide, hvad denne væd-
ske bestaar af; – bedst var det vel at
tage platerne op og pùdse dem, og saa
fylde helt ny vædske paa, – jeg hav-
de jo ikke "destileret" vand for haan-
den (kùnde faaet det paa apotheket), –
men troede ikke det var mere
nödvendigt med dette batteri at brùke
destileret vand – end med de gamle
telefonbatterier, som jeg lavede selv i gam-
le dage, – de fùngerede ùdmærket med
almindeligt vand, – men jeg veed at
destileret vand er nödvendig til enkel-
te batterier, hvor man brùker blandede
syrer. –––
"Besta" beder mig hilse, idet hùn hermed
sender pengene og beder mig takke dig
tusinde gange for komfùren. Engel beder
hilse! – hùn taler stadig bare om sölvræv og
om at "brænde brændevin" til mig, – da hùn
skjönner det er nödvendigt for at holde min
asthma og bronkit paa afstand. Naar jeg er
helt frisk skal dù höre nærmere fra mig. Hils
hele din familie fra alle her. Din Astrup
Translation
Upside down text, along left margin:
P.S
Due to lack of change I enclose
kr. 65 – instead of 64, the amount of the bill, to deduct from my debt to you!
Well, I promised to write again
soon, – it was not such
a pleasant letter, that you received –
the last time, – it was apparently only about
my illness. Well, this bron-
chitis catches up with me again and
again, – I will never be rid of it;
I have only been outdoors one day, and it
hit me hard. But now I shall
not bother you with my afflic-
tions. I have begun to “print” a little
but cannot do much – become instantly tired and
out of breath. –––
Well now you shall hear, the
status of the radio apparatus, which
I will now begin down payments on. –
(<“The Fisherman”> was a start)
2
As you know, many have had a
try at this apparatus besides you:: – Little-
Per Kramer, – Gùnnar Sandal and
now this autumn also Prytz, but without
any result. One sleepless night
I decided to fiddle with it, –
inserted a piece of cork in between
the springs in the telephone circuits and thus
got all 3 lamps to light up simul-
taneously, even when the telephone circuits were
turned on. (Brother Peter, who this summer
also tried in vain to work on the appa-
ratus, – claimed, that there must be
a fault in the circuits somewhere). In the mean-
time I still did not hear anything, – but
then I went over all the circuits
with cutting pliers, and the ones that were made of
insulated wire, I removed and replaced
with new ones. The ends of the coils I clip-
3
ped one inch off of and reconnected them
again, – then I turned all the Ebonite
handles – (or whatever they are called)
as far to the left, as they
would go – and suddenly I could hear [something], but
it was difficult to tune in the frequency,
since “the handle” – (the tuner)
for the coils is “loose” and will never
remain, where it is set; – it’s as though
there is a “spring” in it, but by
“holding it firmly”, we could hear per-
fectly fine in the end, – especially
England and Sweden and occa-
sionally Germany – more infrequently Den-
mark and Oslo but never Bergen.
Well once it sounded like
we had got hold of Bergen: –
we heard a conversation in “sheer”
Bergen dialect; – but it almost
sounded like a
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private telephone conversation, which in
some strange way
had been “broadcasted”. – It was
in fact someone, who asked another person
about, how the business was
going or something similar “OK it's all shit from
here till Sunday – and there <isn’t>
anything arriving from the north
either”. –––
Another time it was presumably
Bergen as well, – although
the man, who spoke had a distinct
East Norway dialect; – it was late
at night, – according to our clock it was go-
ing on 11:30, – and the man, who was speaking,
taught English: “Make sure
to remember that this word must always
be written with an upper case letter in Eng-
lish – I can see” – (then he said
5
in a more muted voice) “that
you two young girls over there
have written it in lower case.”
And then he went on to ex-
plain the difference between “to go” and
“to walk”, – and then he says:
“Imagine now, that you are going to take
a walk up to Nestùn" etc..
Well it was the last word, that
caught my attention, – so
I thought that it must be Ber-
gen; – because there was nowhere
else one might take a stroll to Nestùn
I made note of the spot regarding
both the coils and the capaci-
tors, – but never again
heard anything from Bergen. ––
What we heard best was a temperance
preacher in Sweden, who cursed
that “Swedish punch” in a
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brutally grating voice night
after night – and otherwise “paint-
ed the devil on the wall” in the homes
of Swedish labourers. Then we heard per-
fectly clearly the Swedish profes-
sors’ speeches at both the “college
jubilee” and the university jubilee.
We could likewise clearly hear the <weather
reports> from Oslo and the tele-
grams from there, – which we lat-
er could see printed word for word in “Tid.
Tegn.” Sometimes we hear music
and song from a Swedish cabaret, –
but this was often disrupted by
“the temperance preacher”, who appeared
on many different radio waves,
indeed even – without an antenna! – we had
a terrible thunderstorm here one night and
lightning, and I switched the antenna
over to the ground wire, – and the next
evening I forgot about it,
7
and attached the batteries and telephone
as usual and actually heard without the
antenna both the temperance preacher
and a bit of English “jazz” – (in other words
the things one least preferred); –
but there was such a ruck-
us in the apparatus, that I wanted
give up listening any more that evening,
but then I remembered, that the antenna
was switched over to the ground wire,
and since then everything functioned well, – once
I rearranged it. –––
As I said English “jazz” and English
cabarets or the like – – these
cursed programs with “talk”
and song one after the other – often at
the same time, – that was what we
listened to most. One evening we heard perfectly
cleary one of those English numbers.
Engel and I sat there alone, and then
we wanted to find something else, and so I
8
permitted Engel to “search”,
while I lit up my pipe.
But then everything suddenly
stopped and has been so ever since.
Is it possible that Engel has
turned the coils back and forth
too roughly and perhaps “worn down”
the wire? I think it strange,
that everything should cease only 5 mins.
after we had better reception than
ever before. I have speculated
whether the flat battery – (with all
the dry elements) may have something
wrong with it; because the lamps shine very
weakly hardly at all. The tall battery with the two glass
tanks I have filled with water, and it
appears to function well. All the cir-
cuits are in order, – and I can hear now and
again very weakly “Morse code”.
When I am a little better, – I am still
ill with bronchitis you see, – then I will
look over the apparatus thoroughly and see
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if I can unscrew the coils.
As you perhaps remember, the coil
casing is cracked – broken in
two; – but that should not
be a problem, – it has
been like that the entire time and has
scarcely got worse. ––
I was just over there and tried it again, –
but now the lamps don’t light up at
all, – then it is most likely
the batteryies, that is failing.
I just tried the “flat” battery (with
all the dry elements) and by connecting the
poles together, it produced a great flash of lightning
so violet and intense, – that that battery can-
not have anything wrong with it, – it therefore must be
in the other one – that “the electrolite” has pos-
sibly become too weak, – it functioned
perfectly, after I filled it with water
but now there isn’t the slightest “spark”
in sight. – I thought of adding
ammonia, but don’t dare to do it,
10
until I find out, what this liq-
uid is composed of; – it would probably have been best to
take out the plates and dust them, and then
fill them with fresh liquid, – I did
not have “distilled” water on
hand (could have got it at the pharmacy), –
but did not believe it was any more
necessary to use distilled water
in this battery – than it was with the old
telephone batteries, which I made myself in the
old days, – they functioned perfectly with
ordinary water, – but I know that
distilled water is necessary for cer-
tain batteries, where one uses
acid compounds. –––
“Besta” says hello, as she sends
the enclosed money and asks me to thank you
profusely for the stove. Engel sends her
greetings! – she talks repeatedly about silver foxes and
about “distilling liquor” for me, – as she
understands it is necessary to keep my
asthma and bronchitis at bay. When I am
totally recovered your will hear more from me. Say hello
to your entire family from everyone here. Your Astrup