White fever
White Fever 1986. Borgen 1986. Cover: Nina Sten-Knudsen. The poem is translated by Thomas E. Kennedy.
YOUR FACE
I write to you
to come alive
your face
still shines, your eyes
Everything I shall find
behind the color green
your face
shines, its lines are sharp
all that I will you is nothing
else but all I have
what I have promised you is greater than fire
but I keep my promise
I write
to understand
why your face shines
when you are not here
why your voice sounds everywhere
like drops of sparkling rain down the spine
why am I alone
with words and paper, a pain in twelve tones
I am afraid
because I have no fear
I walk beside myself
down through the street
out and in
of the world
reality is here
but not you
just the words
that bind us together
I turn towards you
your face shines.
from White Fever 1986
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