The river deep in my mind is singing again
For no explicable reason, today I was overwhelmed by a rush of feelings for Olav Hauge's work. Maybe it's because I was re-reading some of his poems a few days ago, and remembered that.
These days, if someone asked what they'd have to read in order to understand me, I would point to his work and say: This. Read this. Well, in translation, unfortunately, but yes. It's not the words exactly, but the images, the simplicity, the things that he writes about.
And "Behind the Mountain of Loneliness" describes so well the dark moods I get into sometimes, it's uncanny.
I normally don't enjoy poetry very much. I try. But it so rarely hits the right note. Hauge hits the right note, almost always.
He's the poet that I wish I could write like.
... This journal entry has been brought to you by the fact that I'm crying into my coffee because I'm so overwhelmed by how good his work is.
(I suggest The Dream We Carry, translated by Bly and Hedin; I have Leaf-Huts and Snow-Houses, translated by Fulton, but I haven't read the entire thing yet, and I really want to do a comparison of the poems that have been translated by both Fulton and Bly/Hedin, because I know there are some duplicates, and they are somewhat different. Will be interesting to see how they scan...)
This entry was originally posted at http://yuuago.dreamwidth.org/3445662.html. You can comment here or at the original entry.
These days, if someone asked what they'd have to read in order to understand me, I would point to his work and say: This. Read this. Well, in translation, unfortunately, but yes. It's not the words exactly, but the images, the simplicity, the things that he writes about.
And "Behind the Mountain of Loneliness" describes so well the dark moods I get into sometimes, it's uncanny.
I normally don't enjoy poetry very much. I try. But it so rarely hits the right note. Hauge hits the right note, almost always.
He's the poet that I wish I could write like.
... This journal entry has been brought to you by the fact that I'm crying into my coffee because I'm so overwhelmed by how good his work is.
(I suggest The Dream We Carry, translated by Bly and Hedin; I have Leaf-Huts and Snow-Houses, translated by Fulton, but I haven't read the entire thing yet, and I really want to do a comparison of the poems that have been translated by both Fulton and Bly/Hedin, because I know there are some duplicates, and they are somewhat different. Will be interesting to see how they scan...)
This entry was originally posted at http://yuuago.dreamwidth.org/3445662.html. You can comment here or at the original entry.