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Loading... alphabet (New Directions) (edition 2001)by Inger Christensen (Author), Susanna Nied (Translator)This collection is absolutely beautiful, breathtaking, terrifying, sad & hopeful...so many things at once. The narrative impact of the mathematical structure is so intense & perfectly suited to a book concerned with nature and the danger posed to it by humanity. This book is filled with Cold War/nuclear-age anxiety as well as a quiet, lovely reverence for the simple existence of natural things. The contrast between death and existence, between death as natural and death as human-created finality is so well portrayed throughout. Definitely a wonderful, gorgeous work of both poetry and translation. I read this in brief segments over the course of a few months. The genius of this work can be found not only in the mathematically inspired composition, but in Nied's brilliant translation. Christensen used the Fibonacci sequence to inspire the structure of the poems, but there is a poignant richness brought by the words themselves to the themes of environment, nature, progress, humanity in the midst of metaphysical simplicity. I think this is the most I've ever enjoyed a book of poetry. Not the usual for me to use someone else's review but in this case I'm making an exception because I don't know if I could explain 'Alphabet' anywhere near as well. http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/dansk/christi.htm It is a very unique piece (it's to be found in the Oulipo section of Complete Review) and well worth recommendation from here. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)839.81174Literature German literature and literatures of related languages Other Germanic literatures Danish and Norwegian literatures Danish Danish poetry 1900–2000 Late 20th century 1945–2000LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Definitely a wonderful, gorgeous work of both poetry and translation. ( )