Gravstaden
i Botnane

Gravstaden vart teken i bruk i 1899 og er framleis gravstad for Botnane. Jan-Magnus Bruheim såg på gravstaden som bygda si historiebok, der kvar grav fortel si historie. Diktet Tri grannar er inspirert av skikken med at to-tre menn frå bygda grov grava når nokon døydde. Slik var det heilt til maskinene tok over for handmakta då det kom ferjefri veg til bygda i 1993.

Skilta heng under tak på gravstaden og vert dermed ikkje vaska av regnet. Difor legg det seg salt sjørôk på skilta, som rustar og treng jamnleg rensing og vask.

Forfattaren sjølv les

I opptaket under kan du høyre Jan-Magnus Bruheim lese diktet Tri grannar. Opptaket er henta frå ein kasett Bruheim las inn dikt på til ein blind ven.

The graveyard i Botnane

The graveyard was established in 1899 and is still the burial site in Botnane. Jan-Magnus Bruheim regarded the graveyard as the community’s history book, in which each grave tells its own story. The poem «Three Neighbours» highlights the custom for two or three men of the community to dig the grave for the deceased. Such was the rule until machines took over for manual power after road transport replaced the ferry in 1993.

Three Neighbours

Three neighbouring men keep
Digging a grave.
But keep their thoughts to themselves:
So easily the thread of life
Is cleaved.

It feels as if a part
Of the neighbourhood is lost
With him who set out
On the final trip at the oars.
Everything keeps talking
Silently in the stillness
Of the one who has left.

The fog lingers low above the fields.
Rain is dripping and the waves wash.
The autumn is about, and the wind
Makes the falling leaves rustle.
All is sameness
In stillness and struggle.

The job is done – the neighbours
Standing about for a moment
At the open tomb.
With their heads bowed in silence.

Then each leaves for his home

Den gamle delen av gravstaden i Botnane.
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1

Gravstaden i Botnane

2

Kaia i Korsnesvika

3

Flòtholmen

4

Grendahuset i Botnane

5

Legene

6

Jørnjorda