Found Items

Back To the Main Page
Back To the Writing Page

Found Items
"Found" items have become pretty popular in the past few years, particularly thanks to the excellent Found Magazine. Whether it's a strange old photo in a used book you've purchased, or a nonsensical note stuck under your car's windshield wipers, these objects are fascinating because of what you don't know about them. They are a mystery, and we share them with others so they may share in the mystery also. Here are some of the things I've found over the years.

Clicking each item name below will open a window with a picture of the item itself.

When Sumner Arrives: A note I found lying next to my car in April 2005. Pretty self-explanatory. I blanked out part of the phone number.
Swedish Poem: Found stuck in an old picture frame I bought at a book & antiques shop in summer 2004. According to an online friend of mine, "I thought it might be some very strangely written Norwegian at first, but it's not, as older Norwegian poems are more Danish than Swedish. Totally Danish in fact, so I would be much better at Danish poems. (on the other hand, a poem from 1959 would probably be either Riksmål, Bokmål or Nynorsk, hum) But enough about that...I'll try to translate, but I'm not too good at Swedish poems..."
25. Octobre 1959
Today, when you make a year
You get a bouquet of flowers
For the flowers' bud
Up we hop
To wish you all well
Good health, happiness without measure
Now we lift our glasses
And we shout out loud --
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
"This translation is very direct, on a word to word basis. I didn't try to twist it all to rhyme (which is the sole purpose of some of these lines, I think). This is just a happy birthday poem. Very typical happy birthday poem I think. Some of the expressions here are very Swedish, so I would have a hard time translating them, that's why I translated more word by word. The two first sentences are alright, aren't they? The second and fourth I don't understand at all. I can't see what the writer meant! I guess a real Swede would understand it a little better, but to me... It might be two sentences made just for rhyme. The fifth and sixth are is like the merry merry christmas of the Swedish (and Norwegian, for that matter) birthdays. The seventh is a better way of saying 'cheers.' This is obviously a birthday card. I can't say with certainity whether it is from friends or family, but even for Swedes, this card is a little too *doesn't find the right word* to come from friends, I think."

Back To the Writing Page
Back To the Main Page