Description
Book SynopsisPia Tafdrup is one of Denmark’s leading poets. She has published over 20 books in Danish since her first collection appeared in 1981, and her work has been translated into many languages. She received the 1999 Nordic Council Literature Prize – Scandinavia’s most prestigious literary award – for Queen’s Gate, which was published in David McDuff’s English translation by Bloodaxe in 2001. Also in 2001, she was appointed a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, and in 2006 she received the Nordic Prize from the Swedish Academy. The Taste of Steel and The Smell of Snow are the first two collections in Pia Tafdrup’s new series of books focussing on the human senses. While taste and smell dominate, the poems are equally about the way of the world and the losses that people sustain during the course of their lives – the disappearance of friends and family members, but also the erosion of control of one’s own existence. The themes of ecology, war and conflict are never far away, and there is a constant recognition of the circular nature of life, the interplay of the generations. Pia Tafdrup’s previous series of themed collections was The Salamander Quartet (2002–2012). Written over ten years, its first two parts were The Whales in Paris and Tarkovsky’s Horses, translated by David McDuff and published by Bloodaxe in 2010 as Tarkovsky’s Horses and other poems. This was followed in 2015 by Salamander Sun and other poems, McDuff’s translation of The Migrant Bird’s Compass and Salamander Sun, the third and fourth parts of the quartet.
Table of ContentsTHE TASTE OF STEEL I No return 15 Stages on life’s way 16 In eternal pursuit 17 Unposted letter 19 Winter blood 20 Not even in museums is there peace II Meditation 23 Stopping at the sight of swans 24 Plenty of time 25 Taste 27 Undercurrent 28 Loneliness III Off track 30 Earring 31 After frost-white shell of cold 32 Japanese cherries 33 Night country 34 Metal 36 Bodies without root nets 37 Down IV Crossroads 40 Power cut 42 Pont Neuf 44 Daily choice 45 The pets and their people 46 Time and space V War 49 The darkness machine 50 Razed city 51 The journalist’s question 52 The spring’s grave 53 A before and an after 54 View from space VI Waiting 57 Chink 58 A squirrel bids welcome 59 Despair drinks fire 60 Life with pigeons 62 Frog VII Loss 65 The anonymous part of the churchyard 66 Each in our own flame 67 Porous border 70 A display case filled with night 72 On the other side 73 Greeting from the deceased 74 Snow flowers 76 Residue 78 Threshold VIII Words 80 Crime scene 81 Mother tongue 82 Word and soul 83 Searchlight 84 Johan Borgen – a ritual 86 Poets IX Paradox 89 Harvest 90 Separation 91 The taste buds wake up 92 We are born again 93 Animal smell of light 94 Killer whales 96 Early morning THE SMELL OF SNOW I Breathe in, breathe out 101 Spirit 102 Prana 103 Fresh snow 105 Under cirrus clouds 107 Your fragrance wakes me 109 Freezing fog 110 Lovesick bird II Antitheses 112 Noses, a comparative study 114 Seduced by Gregory Pincus 115 Not a gift 116 Tags in the night 118 Cleaning poisons 120 Them or us 121 Digital odours III Meditation 125 Spring inhalation 126 Exchange of smells 127 Danish cat meets Australian stone 128 Smell of tomatoes 129 Smell-trace of a morning 131 Camellia japonica 132 Benchmarks from a long day IV Bloodstreams 137 Wrong number 138 Under the asphalt the Milky Way 139 Garlic 140 Nose to the ground 141 The cream from China V The five seasons. A catalogue of smells 145 Spring 147 Summer 149 Autumn 151 Winter 153 The fifth season VI Flashes of thought 157 Caught in the act 158 Smell blind 159 The meaning of meaninglessness 160 After showers of bullets in paradise 162 Words without smell VII Vanishing 164 The smell can be parted from the body 165 Reflection on snow and ice 167 Intense lethargy 168 Glenmorangie Highland Single Malt 169 The end of icebergs VIII Inner world, outer world 172 The smell greets me 173 Memory bank for smells 174 Insect wing 175 Nausea – a flashback 177 Stink 179 Flower shop 180 The primordial brain IX One breath makes the difference 182 Attack in Copenhagen 183 Welcome, people live here 184 I want to be a tree 185 Twelve breaths 186 The smell of books 188 There has been prismatic rain 189 The stream of smells from below 191 Notes
