Original subtitles

[TRAIN APPROACHING]

[RAILS SQUEAKING]

CARSTEN: "At last we emerged from the night mist.

No one recognized anyone now.

The faculty was lost on the journey.

No one asked or demanded: Who are you?

We couldn't have answered,

we had lost our names.

Far away hammered an unbending heart

still at work.

We listened without understanding.

We had come farther than far."

[BIRDSONG]

[TRAIN DEPARTS]

[BIRDSONG]

Hello?

Hello.

Excuse me?

Is there anyone?

NIKO: Oh! Hi. Hi. Hi.

[SPEAKING IN NORWEGIAN]

CARSTEN: Do you speak English?

NIKO: [GROANS] Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. I speak English.

[YAWNS] Do you know what time it is?

Quarter past 9:00.

Quarter past 9:00. Oh yes.

[MOANING] Oh!

So, you wanna go on a...

elk safari?

I want to go to Trysil.

To Trysil! I beg your pardon? Hmm?

I need a car.

You can go down to Siljan and...

I can't.

-Why not? -I... I cannot drive.

Why?

[STUTTERS] Can you help me or not?

[SIGHS IN EXASPERATION] We are not any taxi service.

I work with, uh,

elk safari and beaver safari.

-I will pay you. -Mmm?

I'll give you... 3,000 crowns?

3,000 crowns?

And another 3,000 for the way back.

Yeah?

[EXHALES] Why didn't you say so? Come on.

Yeah.

[DOOR CLOSES]

[NIKO WHISTLES]

[ENGINE STARTS]

[VAN HONKS]

[INDISTINCT TALKING]

[CASH REGISTER BEEPING]

CARSTEN: "Along the overcast road ashes after spent fire

and signs of breaking up in dust and heat.

Nothing else.

But the blaze that flared in the circle of voyagers

disappeared only to the eye

its desire unquenched.

They journeyed for a dream

were ready to give their all

intent on their quest in their unrest,

and the bonfire flares up

on every horizon,

while fresh seekers poke among the ashes"

[VIOLIN MUSIC PLAYING]

So what's up in Trysil, my friend?

CARSTEN: Sorry?

[LAUGHS] I mean, there's nothing up there.

The only thing you have is farms, trees, and goats.

[IMITATES GOAT BLEATING]

It's hard to explain.

Yeah? Try me.

It better not be anything illegal, okay?

I... It's not.

NIKO: [LAUGHS] Okay. Good.

[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING LOUDLY]

[HESITATINGLY] Hey. You mind to...

turn it off?

-Huh? -The music.

-All right. -[TURNS RADIO OFF]

Suit yourself.

[EXHALES]

CARSTEN: "Slender legs are moistened in the night grass.

Long bending stalks wake up with a start,

and brush their dew against passing knees.

A sweet secrecy.

[HIGH-PITCHED SCREECH]

Three light taps on the door, in quiet haste,

in a spellbound night.

A smiling mouth: am I late?

My flesh is wet with dew, and fragrant,

and my body a blossom turned to you."

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

NIKO: So...

this is it.

Have fun.

[BIRDSONG]

[LEAVES RUSTLING]

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

CARSTEN: "Your knees are mine. And the warm moss.

And our young years.

Your shy thirst,

like mine.

And heavy like mine.

God's eye in a sun ablaze.

Your own confused in mine:

Goodbye."

Hey, man.

Are you almost finished?

I gotta get back to my life. [CHUCKLES]

CARSTEN: How far is Vinje from here?

Oh. [CHUCKLES] Vinje is

five or six hours.

Can you take me there tomorrow?

[HESITATINGLY] Well, I don't know...

I'll pay you.

Wait. I have lots of things to do, you know.

-It's like... -I'll give you another 10.

NIKO: ...thousand krone?

Yeah. Sure.

[PANTING] I can take you. Okay.

Up. Voila.

[EXHALES]

[GROANS]

[ENGINE STARTS]

[BAG RUSTLING]

[SIGHS]

[SNIFFS]

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

[RAIN PATTERING]

CARSTEN: "The scent of all my summers is a wreath about my hair,

is this all?

So few and fast!

So inexpressible were my short summers,

with hidden sap and desire.

Tonight the lamps flicker in the dance.

My bridal night.

The eyes of the room seek, wherever I am,

and the eyes of the room absorb.

My flicker is hidden.

My foot is quickly wearied.

My wreath.

My wreath is heavy."

[THUNDER RUMBLING]

[SNIFFLING]

[BIRDSONG]

[NIKO CLEARS THROAT]

Hey.

[BOTH SPEAKING NORWEGIAN]

[SIGHS]

[SIGHS]

[BREATHING SHAKILY]

CARSTEN: "The mouth is blocked by a heavy stone.

The mouth is blocked by a heavy stone,

and earth with flowers on top through pelting nights.

But the great rivers run deeper.

The rivers run to the sea in floods,

run in torrents of floods

clear and muddy,

sometimes bloody.

The mouth is blocked for words.

The silent sea longs.

To rest there.

[PEOPLE SPEAKING AND LAUGHING INDISTINCTLY]

[NIKO SPEAKING NORWEGIAN]

[LAUGHING]

[EXHALES]

Ah. So...

when are you gonna tell me what you're working on, hmm?

[CHUCKLES] Come on. You can tell me. I'm not telling anyone.

I promise. Okay?

What is it?

It's like you're kind of a...

Lonely Planet guide to the

most lonely shit in Norway?

Are you kind of a whacko or something?

I'm translating some poems.

Some poems. Great.

Which poems?

Tarjei Vesaas?

Tarjei Vesaas. Oh!

That old bastard.

I thought everything of his stuff

was translated already.

Not into Chinese.

[MUFFLED] I beg your pardon?

These were my wife's favorites.

Yeah.

She was a writer from China.

Working on some translations.

Then she got sick.

Oh.

I'm sorry.

I... I'm sorry.

It's okay.

I'm going to wait in the van.

[VAN DOOR CLOSES]

[ENGINE STARTS]

[METAL CLANGING]

[WATER RUSHING]

[PEOPLE TALKING AND LAUGHING INDISTINCTLY]

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

[WATER RUSHING]

[BELLS TOLLING]

[ALL CHEERING AND CLAPPING]

[CHILDREN TALKING AND LAUGHING]

[BIRDS SQUAWKING]

[METAL CLANGING]

[GROANS]

There you are.

I have been looking for you.

You okay?

Nice watch.

[NIKO SIGHS]

CARSTEN: "Like a rainy evening in a summer drought.

The parched lady's mantle is slowly called to life

by what is happening now.

Heaven and earth,

what is one and what is the other?

One has filled itself with the other at such an hour,

through such a flow of sweetness.

A fragrance one never learned about

in all one's years of learning

now it's here

close to my cheek.

And while the wet dusk deepens

the paths on the water blur

as if to be tightened at everything's end

and the trees on the shore are not trees

but you and I alone in silence,

and the shore

is no longer any shore or boundary."

[ENGINE STALLING]

[GOATS BLEATING]

[COLLAR BELLS CLINKING]

[MARI RECITING POEM IN NORWEGIAN]

I'll go pay for the rooms, yeah?

No. I can pay for myself.

It's my fault we have to stay. So...

Hey. You wanna catch a drink before we go in?

No, thank you.

I'm okay.

Okay.

[BELL DINGS OVER DOOR]

[EXHALES]

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]

[SIGHS]

[BOTH SPEAKING NORWEGIAN]

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

CARSTEN: "Will you give me your hand in the moonlight,

leaf you are.

Under the open sky.

Above the open chasm.

You and I are like leaves.

Quickly trembling,

quickly gone.

Come."

[CONVERSATIONS CONTINUE]

[EXHALES]

[MARI IN NORWEGIAN ON VOICEMAIL]

[SPEAKING NORWEGIAN]

[MARI IN NORWEGIAN ON VOICEMAIL]

[NIKO IN NORWEGIAN ON VOICEMAIL]

[MARI IN NORWEGIAN ON VOICEMAIL]

[NIKO ON PHONE IN NORWEGIAN]

[NIKO AND MARI SPEAKING IN NORWEGIAN]

[NIKO EXHALES DEEPLY]

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

[FIRE CRACKLING]

[CRACKLING INTENSIFIES]

CARSTEN: "We never talk about that.

It's there where our road lies.

The road.

Our feet have crossed it before we know it.

No one has a heart strong enough,

no one has a conscience clear enough,

to be rid of it.

Sometimes we imagine we steer clear of it,

fixedly we stare at our shoes afterwards.

It's there where our road lies.

What was it before?

We don't know.

It has a shape that startles us

and sets our own sludge in motion.

What will it become on our journey?

We don't understand.

Yet another rung down in decay?

It is right here on our path

and is the horror we seek,

slowly transformed it its cold fire,

with yet another rung down,

yet worse a little to have stepped in."

[SOFTLY] Polish your shoes.

Polish your shoes

in secret.

[DISTRAUGHT BREATHING]

[SIGHS]

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

[SPEAKING MANDARIN]

[SIZZLING]

[EXHALES]

[SNIFFING]

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

[STARTLED GASP]

[WIND BLOWING]

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

CARSTEN: "Between you and me a soundless wind stands

like a glass wall:

It's a day for glass walls.

Each time I look at you

you open your mouth and cry out,

but not one word gets through.

Your eyes widen and read on my lips

that I too cry in bitterness.

At moments like this you press your face against the glass

like a fraught child,

contorting your features.

Swollen and disfigured with want

you lie close on the other side

and the silence is complete."

[WIND BLOWING]

[SIGHS]

[RECITING POEM IN NORWEGIAN]

[CHUCKLES]

[EXHALES SHARPLY]

[TAKES DEEP BREATH AND EXHALES]

[BREATHES DEEPLY]

Are you ready?

[BIRDSONG]

[ORGAN PLAYING]

[WOMAN SINGING]

CARSTEN: Thought you were bringing me to the farmhouse.

NIKO: Yes. I will. I will. I will.

But first...

I have to do something.

[NIKO AND MARI SPEAKING NORWEGIAN]

[NIKO CHUCKLES]

[NIKO CLEARS THROAT]

NIKO: All right. Let's go.

[NIKO CHUCKLES]

[ENGINE STARTS]

[VAN HONKS]

[WATER RUSHING]

NIKO: Oh. Did you find what you were looking for?

[VAN DOOR CLOSES]

[ENGINE STARTS]

[NIKO PANTING]

NIKO: There.

[RAIN PATTERING]

[MUMBLES]

[SNIFFS]

[MUMBLES]

[BREATHING SHAKILY]

[VOICE SHAKING AND SPEAKING SOFTLY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

[VOICE CATCHES]

[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

[TAKES DEEP BREATH]

[CONTINUES SPEAKING SOFTLY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

[CRYING]

[CONTINUES WEEPING]

CARSTEN: "You leave,

your dream of now is left with me

like yes behind warm rocks.

Your longing to grow out of now,

your great longing leaves too.

Imprint of a girl's foot

lightly in the ditch.

So nakedly helpless.

A spoiled foot

a soiled body on the way to bathe in sun.

A blazing sun, that will find you bathing by yourself

and drive you closer and closer

to what you seek."

[SNIFFLES]

[CRYING]

[COUGHS AND SNIFFS]

[EXHALES HEAVILY]

[CARSTEN WHIMPERING]

[CRYING]

[MOURNFUL MUSIC PLAYING]

[CLEARS THROAT] Let's go.

[ENGINE SPLUTTERING]

[GEARS GRINDING]

NIKO: What's this?

[THUDDING]

[GROANS] Fuck!

[CARSTEN LAUGHS]

[BOTH LAUGH]

[CHUCKLES] Do you know anything about a car engine?

No.

-NIKO: Fuck. -[CARSTEN LAUGHS]

[BOTH LAUGHING HEARTILY]

[INDISTINCT TALKING AND LAUGHING]

[NIKO SPEAKING IN NORWEGIAN]

[BONFIRE CRACKLING]

[TALKING CONTINUES]

NIKO: Mari!

[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

WOMAN 1: You guys. You think it'll last?

WOMAN 2: Is it really true?

[MAN LAUGHS]

[INDISTINCT TALKING AND LAUGHING]

[ALL CHEERING AND CLAPPING]

CARSTEN: "Beyond the moment,

beyond argument

beyond pain

beyond sorrow

isn't it you I see?

And never

were you more lovely to me,

and more beautiful."

[CLAPPING CONTINUES]

[TALKING AND LAUGHING CONTINUES]

CARSTEN: "The road ends in the night,

but the night ends on the road.

The road slices like a knife through life.

Separating good and evil.

The road is the road

to the last day."

[TRADITIONAL NORWEGIAN FOLK SONG PLAYING]

[MAN SINGING IN NORWEGIAN]