Alphabet

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by Inger Christensen


  from the forest that’s still smoking

  is irrelevant and radiation

  from moving animals does not show up

  a group of children seeks shelter in a cave

  mutely observed only by a hare

  as if they were children in childhood‘s

  fairy-tales they hear the wind tell

  of the burned-off fields

  but they are no children

  no one carries them any more

  INGER CHRISTENSEN was born in 1935. She is one of Denmark’s best-known poets, and has published six books of poetry over a forty-year period. She has also written novels, plays, children’s books and essays. As well as winning many Danish awards, she has won several major European literary awards, including the prestigious Nordic Prize of the Swedish Academy (1994), Der osterreichische Staatspreis für Literature (1994), Preis der Stadt Münster für Europaische Poesie (1995) and Grand Prix des Biennales Internationales de Poesie (1996).

  Inger Christensen has been a member of Det Danske Akademi (the Danish Academy) since 1978, of the Bielfelder Colloquium since 1994, and of the Academie Europeene de Poesie since 1996.

  SUSANNA NIED is a former instructor of English and comparative literature at San Diego State University in California. Her work has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies. Her translation of alphabet won the 1982 ASF/PEN Translation Prize for Poetry, awarded by the American-Scandinavian Foundation and Scandinavian Review.

  Copyright 1981, 2000 by Inger Christensen

  Translation copyright 2000 by Susanna Nied

  All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

  Acknowledgments are due to the editors of the following publications in which extracts from this translation have appeared: New Directions in Poetry and Prose, Out of Denmark. Poetry East, Poetry in Transit, Scandinavian Review, Spor (Copenhagen). Traces (Puris), Translation.

  First published in the U.K. by Bloodaxe Books Ltd. First published as a New Directions Paperbook Original (NDP920) in 2001. alphabet was first published in Danish—as alfabet—in 1981 by Cyldendal.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data

  Christensen, Inger,.1935

  [Alfabet. English]

  Alphabet / Inger Christensen: translated by Susanna Nied.

  p. cm

  ISBN 978-0-811-21477-3 pbk.

  ISBN 978-0-811-22368-3 (e-book)

  1. Nied, Susanna. II. Title

  PTR176.13.H727 A1413 2001

  839.8117—de21

  00-066-423

  New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin

  by New Directions Publishing Corporation

  80 Eighth Avenue. New York 10011

 

 

 


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