Inger Christensen, 73, Scandinavian Poet

I wrote Margalit Fox a one word review of her piece today on Inger Christensen.

"WOW."

I then felt that perhaps I eliminated too many words, so I added just a few.

I've met Margalit, so I added tongue-in-cheek that I didn't think I'd ever be able to see that bathroom chestnut...

Some come here to sit and think...

quite the same way ever again, now armed with that much knowledge of poetry structure.

Come to think of it, I haven't seen much at all of the above art form. I think people have either stopped carrying pens and knives, or I've ascended to better places. Maybe both.

But, in all seriousness, Margalit tells us more about poetry than I think would be possible, even in a piece about a now deceased practitioner.

And translated poetry makes you think even more. I mean, an alphabetical poem that starts with "apricot" in English can't, I think, start with the Danish word for apricot and still expect to have an "a" lead off, can it? So, it can't be a word-for-word translation, yet it loses nothing.

And this is what makes the more modern obit piece a work of literature, as well as news. Also learning.

My own continuous education stopped during the Johnson (Lyndon) administration. But, with a daily dose of well written obits, I've never left school.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/books/12christensen.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com/