Description
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
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
About the Author
Goeran 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
Reviews
Winner of the 1993 Translation Prize, American-Scandinavian Foundation
Book Information
ISBN 9780691015439
Author Goeran Sonnevi
Format Paperback
Page Count 218
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 28g
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
About the Author
Goeran 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
Reviews
Winner of the 1993 Translation Prize, American-Scandinavian Foundation
Book Information
ISBN 9780691015439
Author Goeran Sonnevi
Format Paperback
Page Count 218
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 28g
