Winner of the 1993 Translation Prize, American-Scandinavian Foundation

Goran Sonnevi is one of Sweden's most celebrated, respected, and prolific poets. For this first book-length selection of Sonnevi to appear in English, Rika Lesser has chosen works written between 1971 and 1989--although most of the poems come from the last decade and from Sonnevi's last three books, which form part of the single oandlig [unending/infinite/interminable] poem that he continues to write from book to book. Of Lesser's introduction to the work, Richard Howard writes, "Lesser's wonderful prose texts at the outset provide not only an ingress into complex and baffling matter but one of the most determined statements of the translator's text since Walter Benjamin." From "Aby, Oland; 1982" We are here in the ultimate lives of our bodies negations of the ultimate negation We are complete parts of the world We rise up out of infinity like the limestone flats from the sea Like the stars We are denials of infinity One day we shall reach all the way there
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Goran Sonnevi is one of Sweden's most celebrated, respected, and prolific poets. This book presents the works of Sonnevi written between 1971 and 1989.
AcknowledgmentsGoran Sonnevi: An IntroductionSonnevi: A Translator's Retrospective MontageKoster, 19733Whose life? you asked15the hyacinth17Dyron; 198118Summer has turned now And I go21Seeing your smile23Mourning Cloak25Words have no limits30I said to you33The twilight of spring rain37You say I'm naive38You, who say yes to39Demon colors40For S***, 197143There is life that / will not give up45You sense the light's fragrance46The wound bleeding48A Child Is Not a Knife49Breaking up: that large feeling52in the meadow by the shore57Incalculable: the heart59Death is no more60The narrow shaft61Fagerfjall, Tjorn, 1986; For Pentti62Aby, Oland; 198264what / do I find / then67From the cliff at the foot of Skull Mountain70New Year's 198673The center of unheard-of, of enormous hopes75Burge, Oja; 198979Notes87Swedish Contents and Bibliographical Citations93
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"Göran Sonnevi's presence in Swedish poetry of this century is a powerful one. He holds to creatures such as birds and worms and to the patterns of politics with the same passion. He won't turn his eyes away from the delights of sensual married life or the horror of capitalism. At his best, he is a sensuous, ethical poet, a surprising union. Rika Lesser's translations are skillful and true."—Robert Bly"Through the power of Rika Lesser's brilliant translations, Göran Sonnevi's poetry is shown to be what it is: the work of one of the world's major poets."—Lawrence Joseph
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Goran Sonnevi's presence in Swedish poetry of this century is a powerful one. He holds to creatures such as birds and worms and to the patterns of politics with the same passion. He won't turn his eyes away from the delights of sensual married life or the horror of capitalism. At his best, he is a sensuous, ethical poet, a surprising union. Rika Lesser's translations are skillful and true. -- Robert Bly Through the power of Rika Lesser's brilliant translations, Goran Sonnevi's poetry is shown to be what it is: the work of one of the world's major poets. -- Lawrence Joseph
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780691015439
Publisert
1993-03-14
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Vekt
28 gr
Høyde
235 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, U, 06, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
218

Forfatter
Edited and translated by

Om bidragsyterne

Göran Sonnevi has written twelve books of poems and assembled and revised collections of his poems (most of which are in print in Sweden in mass-market paperback editions). Rika Lesser is a poet and has translated numerous works of poetry, including a selection of the poems of Rilke, Rilke: Between Roots (Princeton). For a group of poems from A Child Is Not a Knife, she received the Poetry Society of America's George Bogin Memorial Award in 1992 and the American Scandinavian Foundation's