The Heart at it´s Zenith

The Heart at it´s Zenith. Poems. Gyldendal 2024. Cover: Clara Birgersson with a picture of Carl Fredrik Hill: Familjen - Variation I. The poem is translated by David McDuff.

MY MOTHER, MY FUTURE

I am an inheritor, something of my mother lives in me

I am the eldest daughter of the womb,

my first place was in my mother, an ocean,

by turn calm and in turmoil,

earth and heaven were there,

earth and heaven were not

contrasts of each other,

down was also up, up was also down,

earth and heaven were not divided,

but connected like our souls.

My mother bore me in her body,

I have grown in my mother, born

into an expanding universe,

to open my eyes each day

is a continued birth,

attached to my mother, separated

from my mother,

I live in movement, in its strength,

come into being there,

have scars that the sun does not erase,

but my feet carry me

my heart beats.

She is my mother, she is my future,

life looks at me again,

with a new voice.

See the Danish book: :https://www.gyldendal.dk/produkter/hjertet-i-zenit-9788702414585

https://www.gyldendal.dk/produkter/hjertet-i-zenit-9788702414585

See the Danish book: https://www.gyldendal.dk/produkter/hjertet-i-zenit-9788702414585

Pia Tafdrup
is a poet, writer and a member of The Danish Academy.

Honours include:

The Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize 2006
The Soeren Gyldendal Award, 2005
The Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, 1999

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© 2024 Pia Tafdrup