North in the World – Selected Poems of Rolf Jacobsen – A Bilingual English–Norwegian Edition - Hardcover

Jacobsen, Rolf

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226390357 ISBN 13: 9780226390352

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2002

Synopsis

"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 12 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 marvellous poetry.

About this title

Review:

"But up in the day you, of course, are dancing over the asphalt with the soles of your feet on fire, and you have silk against your navel's white eye and a new coat in the sunshine. And up in the light somewhere I, of course, stand and watch how the cigarette's blue soul flutters like a chaste angel through the chestnut leaves toward eternal life. from "Metaphysics of the City"; "Discovering Jacobsen was a joy. I am grateful to his translator, Roger Greenwald." - Czeslaw Milosz; "North in the World struck me with revelatory force. Jacobsen is a brilliant and innovative poet, though his work fits no obvious mold. Roger Greenwald, himself an impressive poet, has done a rare job of translation, creating verbal objects in English that have the urgency, the simplicity, and the necessary, unforgiving depths of great poetry." - Jay Parini

About the Author:

Roger Greenwald is senior lecturer and director of the Writing Centre at Innis College at the University of Toronto. He is the author of one book of poems, Connecting Flight, and the translator of two novels and several books of poetry, most recently Through Naked Branches: Selected Poems of Tarjei Vesaas.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0226390357
• ISBN 13: 9780226390352
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352