Takras

se opp
Ok, so I was in the Sound of Mu, opening the bar for the day. Petter was there, folding a piece of A4 paper in half. “How long have you been in Norway?” he asked. “Since June,” I replied. So this was my first winter. He said he’d have to introduce me to a feature of Norwegian winter called takras.
It was raining outside, indicating both that the temperature had risen, and that the snow was beginning to melt. This meant the ice on the roofs would become unstuck – and fall off. Petter and I went out onto the street outside Mu and he pointed to a menacing shard of ice on the roof, high up above us. Soon, it would fall, to the peril of whoever stood below.


On his piece of paper, Petter wrote his warning Se opp for takras!! and put it on the door.
Se opp for means look up for. Tak means roof or ceiling, and ras means a slide or a fall, in the sense of a landslide or avalanche – that kind of thing.
I discussed takras with some Mu members/customers. Bjarne said something about seeing takras falling down into the river with a tremendous crash. I hoped to see something like that myself, but during the days of takras the only experience I had was inside a train, when something hit the roof, so I didn’t see anything. I even missed the takras outside Mu; it had fallen in the dead of night, and melted down into this ice cube by the time I photographed it:
takras left

barry
Barry Kavanagh writes fiction, and has made music, formerly with Dacianos.

Contact him here.