alphabet (New Directions) [Paperback]

Inger Christensen (Author), Susanna Nied (Translator)

Book Description

Series: New Directions | Publication Date: May 17, 2001

A startling and gorgeous work by Denmark's most admired poet finally available in English translation.

Awarded the American-Scandinavian PEN Translation Prize by Michael Hamburger, Susanna Nied's translation of alphabet introduces Inger Christensen's poetry to US readers for the first time. Born in 1935, Inger Christensen is Denmark's best known poet. Her award-winning alphabet is based structurally on Fibonacci's sequence (a mathematical sequence in which each number is the sum of the two previous numbers), in combination with the alphabet. The gorgeous poetry herein reflects a complex philosophical background, yet has a visionary quality, discovering the metaphysical in the simple stuff of everyday life. In alphabet, Christensen creates a framework of psalm-like forms that unfold like expanding universes, while crystallizing both the beauty and the potential for destruction that permeate our times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of Scandinavia's most honored poets, veteran Danish writer Christensen originally published her book-length Alphabet 20 years ago to great acclaim; this translation by former San Diego State Univ. English instructor Susanna Nied is the first in English and was awarded the American-Scandinavian PEN translation prize. The lengths in lines of each of this slim volume's 14 poems from "[a]" to "[n]" are based on the Fibonacci sequence. Beginning with zero and one, the sequence runs 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 600; "[a]" begins where (0 + 1 = 1). One assumes the 977 lines "[o]" would have required finally overwhelmed the poet and forced her to stop at ["n"]; Ron Silliman's similar alphabetic project makes no such allowances. As used here with controlled repetitions, the sequence gives the whole an almost medieval sense of restriction, as in the last four lines of "[e]": "afterglow exists; oaks, elms,/ junipers, sameness, loneliness exist;/ eider ducks, spiders, and vinegar/ exist, and the future, the future." Abstracted cold war fears and post-'70s ecological concern and alienation give way to litanies of real world outrages "chemical ghetto guns exist/ with their old-fashioned, peaceable precision// guns and wailing women, full as/ greedy owls exist; the scene of the crime exists" which culminate in a post-nuclear holocaust nightmare, with birds and children somehow having survived in caves. The scenario may seem dated, but the threats remain very real, and Christensen's poetic appeal for sanity and humanity remains an abstracted call to action.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Danish

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (May 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081121477X
• ISBN-13: 978-0811214773
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Scandinavian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classical form and contemporary images, May 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: alphabet (New Directions) (Paperback)

Inger Christensen's Alphabet is a modern marvel: within the imposed form of the order of the alphabet, she constructs widely varying images, everyday-ish, fanciful, delicate, startling. "Constructs" may be the wrong verb because the language and the images appear effortlessly produced, as if they were simply evoked, although the most cursory look at the the collection shows the poet's painstaking attention to form and structure. The same quality of effortlessness, naturalness, obviousness, is exhibited by Susanne Nied's superb translation --indeed the kind of translation Gogol termed 'a transparent glass'. The personality, culture and idiosyncracies of the translator are nowhere in evidence. Subtly, skillfully, and imaginatively the Danish is transposed into English without the loss of a breath. Inger Christensen is a well-known poet in Denmark, indeed in Europe. Thanks to Susanna Nied she has been introduced to the American public, and may now at long last receive the recognition she deserves also in the US. It is a pleasure to see such lovingly crafted literature, and all involved in bringing it to the American public are to be congratulated: translator, publisher, distributor.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars breathing numbers, June 24, 2010

By 

mammam "hwalga" (Seoul, Korea) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: alphabet (New Directions) (Paperback)

This book found me while I was beginning a series of works on Jutland, the Danish poet Inger Christensen's birthplace. It is an astonishing work, everfresh, original, and deeply, integrally beautiful. The poem is built upon the Fibonacci sequence of Leonardo of Pisa and Christensen, early trained as a mathematician, has used this cumulative sequence to create an organic, engaged, poetic masterpiece. This is breathing with numbers.