North in the World
Selected Poems of Rolf Jacobsen, A Bilingual Edition
9780226333540
North in the World
Selected Poems of Rolf Jacobsen, A Bilingual Edition
North in the World presents 121 poems by Rolf Jacobsen (1907-1994), one of Norway’s greatest modern poets. Garnering the highest praise of critics, Jacobsen won many of Norway’s and Sweden’s most prestigious literary awards, including the Swedish Academy’s Dobloug Prize and the Grand Nordic Prize, also known as the "Little Nobel." But he also has earned a wide popular audience, because ordinary readers can understand and enjoy the way he explores the complex counterpoint of nature and technology, progress and self-destruction, daily life and cosmic wonder.
Drawing from all twelve of his books, and including one poem collected posthumously, North in the World offers award-winning English translations of Jacobsen’s poems, accompanied by the original Norwegian texts. The translator, the American poet Roger Greenwald, worked with Jacobsen himself to correct errors that had crept into the Norwegian texts over the years. An in-depth introduction by Greenwald highlights the main features of Jacobsen’s poetry, and extensive endnotes, as well as indexes to titles and first lines in both languages, enhance the usefulness of the book for general readers and scholars alike. The result is the definitive bilingual edition of Jacobsen’s marvelous poetry.
Drawing from all twelve of his books, and including one poem collected posthumously, North in the World offers award-winning English translations of Jacobsen’s poems, accompanied by the original Norwegian texts. The translator, the American poet Roger Greenwald, worked with Jacobsen himself to correct errors that had crept into the Norwegian texts over the years. An in-depth introduction by Greenwald highlights the main features of Jacobsen’s poetry, and extensive endnotes, as well as indexes to titles and first lines in both languages, enhance the usefulness of the book for general readers and scholars alike. The result is the definitive bilingual edition of Jacobsen’s marvelous poetry.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Rain
Marshes
The Clouds
Travel
Afternoon
Plate Glass
Metaphysics of the City
Industrial District
Railroad Country
The Northern Lights
Rubber
Europe
Heredity and Environment
Vibrating Telephone Poles
Gaslight
Coke
Cobalt
Sunflower
Express Train
My Tree
Day and Night
In the Varald Forest
Pavane
Landscape with Steam Shovels
The Age of the Great Symphonies
The Lonely Balcony
The Archaeologist
Timber
Guardian Angel
The Old Ladies
Old Age
The Inverted Summer
Midsummer Night’s Light
Turnip Crop
Meadowsweet
Mournful Towers
Stave Churches
Hand and Mouth
The Moon and the Apple Tree
Old Men’s Graves
Nightbird
A Second Sun
Green Light
The Foundryman of Waterfalls
Mirror Lakes
Where Do the Streets Go?
In Countries Where the Light Has Another Color
The Sculptor
In the Hall of Gobelin Tapestries
Letter to the Light
In January
Night Window
Blind Song
Now the River Is Carrying Off Its Lights
The Memory of Horses
Small Lights at Sea
Old Clocks
The Silence in Trees
Glass Soldiers
The Towers in Bologna
The Catacombs of San Callisto
Slowly -
The Silence Afterwards
The Dark of Night
Thoughts upon Listening In on a Radio Telescope
Unthinking -
Avignon, Vaucluse
Waiting Time
Hush -
Peasant Norway
Some
Girlchild -
Signs of Winter
End of the Road
To Iris
Green Man
Knives Knives
Angelus
Briefing
Epilogue: For an etching: "Aurora,"
Skylab
A Glass House
Antenna-forest
Avaldsnes
Old Cities in Auvergne
Needles, Thread and Yarn
Hallingskeid
Blind Words
Sand
Without a Sound
In Raspberry Season
From Above, from Below and from the Side
The History of Stone
We Who Live near the Railway
Fasten Your Seat Belts -
The Images
The Media Poem
Come On -
Look Up (N.B. N.B.)
In Every Forest
You Bird -
To You
On Falling Asleep in a Field
Beyond Grorud -
Hundvako
Mountain Rule
More Mountains
The Bells from Assisi
"Silvery Moon"
The Inland Line
[Part Way]
Trees in Autumn
Thoughts at Lake Sjodal
Suddenly. In December
Room 301
Barbed-wire Winter
The Sewing Machine
Did I Know You?
It Was Here -
Fireflies
A Poem on the River Glama
Notes
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines
Introduction
Rain
Marshes
The Clouds
Travel
Afternoon
Plate Glass
Metaphysics of the City
Industrial District
Railroad Country
The Northern Lights
Rubber
Europe
Heredity and Environment
Vibrating Telephone Poles
Gaslight
Coke
Cobalt
Sunflower
Express Train
My Tree
Day and Night
In the Varald Forest
Pavane
Landscape with Steam Shovels
The Age of the Great Symphonies
The Lonely Balcony
The Archaeologist
Timber
Guardian Angel
The Old Ladies
Old Age
The Inverted Summer
Midsummer Night’s Light
Turnip Crop
Meadowsweet
Mournful Towers
Stave Churches
Hand and Mouth
The Moon and the Apple Tree
Old Men’s Graves
Nightbird
A Second Sun
Green Light
The Foundryman of Waterfalls
Mirror Lakes
Where Do the Streets Go?
In Countries Where the Light Has Another Color
The Sculptor
In the Hall of Gobelin Tapestries
Letter to the Light
In January
Night Window
Blind Song
Now the River Is Carrying Off Its Lights
The Memory of Horses
Small Lights at Sea
Old Clocks
The Silence in Trees
Glass Soldiers
The Towers in Bologna
The Catacombs of San Callisto
Slowly -
The Silence Afterwards
The Dark of Night
Thoughts upon Listening In on a Radio Telescope
Unthinking -
Avignon, Vaucluse
Waiting Time
Hush -
Peasant Norway
Some
Girlchild -
Signs of Winter
End of the Road
To Iris
Green Man
Knives Knives
Angelus
Briefing
Epilogue: For an etching: "Aurora,"
Skylab
A Glass House
Antenna-forest
Avaldsnes
Old Cities in Auvergne
Needles, Thread and Yarn
Hallingskeid
Blind Words
Sand
Without a Sound
In Raspberry Season
From Above, from Below and from the Side
The History of Stone
We Who Live near the Railway
Fasten Your Seat Belts -
The Images
The Media Poem
Come On -
Look Up (N.B. N.B.)
In Every Forest
You Bird -
To You
On Falling Asleep in a Field
Beyond Grorud -
Hundvako
Mountain Rule
More Mountains
The Bells from Assisi
"Silvery Moon"
The Inland Line
[Part Way]
Trees in Autumn
Thoughts at Lake Sjodal
Suddenly. In December
Room 301
Barbed-wire Winter
The Sewing Machine
Did I Know You?
It Was Here -
Fireflies
A Poem on the River Glama
Notes
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines