Poetry
Digte
Not translated into English
Emil Aarestrup · 1838
Opening lines
Som sin brune Lyng den øde Flade,
Som sit lette Ax den grønne Tilie,
Som sit løse Skum en ung Najade,
Som et Løg i sorten Muld sin Lilie,
Som Polyperne den skjøre Plade,
Som den bløde Musling sin Conchilie,
Har mit Indre formet disse Blade
Af en lønlig Drift, fast uden Villie.
As the barren plain its brown heather,
As the green stalk its light ear,
As a young naiad her loose foam,
As a bulb in the black mould its lily,
As the polyps their brittle plate,
As the soft mussel its shell,
My inner self has shaped these leaves
From a secret urge, almost without will.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
The collection opens with stanzas that compare the birth of poems to that of plants and shells. There follow romances, some cheerful, others dark, poems of married love or of playful tone, then forty-two three-line refrains, often erotic. The last part, “Erotic Situations”, brings together fifty-one tableaux: each time a man and a woman, he almost always sighing, she by turns coquettish, distant, domineering or faithful; the last seven form the story of an illness.
Context
The book came out in December 1837 with C. A. Reitzel, dated 1838. Christian Winther, to whom the author had read his verses at New Year 1834, had urged him to publish and passed on the manuscript himself. It gathers pieces written from 1823 to 1837, of which only nine had already appeared; the author had taken from Friedrich Rückert the Italian form of the ritornello. The publication passed almost unnoticed, and the author would hardly write any more afterwards. His unpublished verses were published in 1863, the collected poems in 1877, and Georg Brandes devoted a study to him in 1868.
Who it is for
Short pieces, most of which can be read on their own, in the language of 1838, which modern Danish editions annotate. No French or English translation of the collection.
Prizes and reception
Almost ignored when it appeared, it has since been regarded as the summit of Danish love poetry of its time.
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The pages consulted to check this page.