13

metal, the ore in the mountain, exists,

darkness in mine shafts, milk not let down
from mother's breasts, an ingrown dread where

whisperings exist, whisperings exist
the cell's oldest, fondest collusion

consider this market, consider this import
and export of fathers, half bullies
half tortured soldiers, consider

their barren last vanishing, metal
to metal, as the amount of unsown maize
grows and the water shortage grows

speak now of mildness, now of the mystery
of salt; speak now of mediation, of mankind, of
courage; tell me that the marble of banks
can be eaten; tell me that the moon is lovely,
that the extinct moa easts green melon,

that merriment exists, is thriving,
that moss animals and mackerel shoals exist, that
means of giving up, of descent, exist, and
physical portioning out, as in poems, of matchless
earthly goods, that pity exists

Inger Christensen, Alphabet, Susanna Nied, 2000

12

life, the air we inhale exists
a lightness in it all, a likeness in it all,
an equation, an open and transferable expression
in it all, and as tree after tree foams up in
early summer, a passion, passion in it all,
as if in the air's play with elm keys falling
like manna there existed a simply sketched design,
simple as happiness having plenty of food
and unhappiness none, simple as longing
having plenty of options and suffering none,
simple as the holy lotus is simple
because it is edible, a design as simple as laughter
sketching your face in the air

Inger Christensen, Alphabet, Susan Nied (trad.), New Directions Paperbook, 2001

De «Epilogos»

(...)

to trust that on its own language will
produce the necessary
feelings thoughts
if necessary new
feelings
thoughts
so we can survive fear
with our fear
intact

(...)

Or erotic attempts
all that unifies us
is what
divides us
in the first place death
is our only continuity
division
forever unified
in the second place life
is our particular discontinuity
unity
temporarily divided
in the third place psychic striving
total eroticism is
independent of sex
inconceivable without it
independent of death
inconceivable without it
concentrated on uniting
what is divided

(...)

Fear of being alone
alone with the past
alone with the great pressure of your imagination
distraction emptiness
alone with your joy your courage
your inadequate effort
alone with your song
your facts
and your freedom
alone with it all
in its discontinous
condition
unique
incomparable
the sun
of an unobserved solar system
Fear of being with others
with others
who suddendly know
what they must not know
about itself
with others
who suddendly say
that what you have said
must not be said
and if you say it again
they will leave
a threat
a shock
or with others
who just don't feel like it
and with others
who feel like it too much
or with
accusation
gossip
anger
with
hope
jealousy
despair
with
demons
reasonable people
and ascetics
with everyone and everything
in its discontinous condition
specific
comparable to
a worn meteor
in a totally illusory solar system
Fear of completion
of habit inertia
monotonous dialogues
of recognition
repetition
conclusion
of the synthesis that is never right
of the rightness that is never honest
of the honesty that is never right
of the practical
ordered
well-organized
civilized
pattern
and of the system
of your own system
to which you cling
of the others' systems
in which you are caught up
of the system as such
magnetic
set
and all-inclusive
Fear of completion
of movement
space
conflict

(...)

Eccentric attempts
when a man
steps out of himself
steps out of
his daily life
his function
his situation
steps out of
his habits
his peaceful
condition
we call the process
ecstasy
when he claims
that the clouds
shoot like pain
that the clouds
originate
in electrical charges
water vapor
flight
inside his weighted head

(...)

how shall we invent
thoughts for the feelings
how shall we find
a technique
for understanding
a technique
for shared consciousness
a knowledge at least
of all that we don't even see
in ourselves
in the others
each other
it could be me
that stepped out of myself
Magical attempts
it could be words
that stepped out of themselves
as realities
it could be words
that like a fever transformed
fear to joy
it could be words
that got to the bottom
of seduction
placed their genes
in the individual
cell
grew
forced themselves through
cancer and virus
and mortalities
to the glorious stature
of antibodies
medication
salvation
it could be words
that brought grace
into the world
formulated fear
so every single fearful person
knew that he was probably
alone in the world
was probably alone
with his fear
but never alone
with his own consciousness

(...)

Inger Christensen, It, Susanna Nied (trad.), Anne Carson (intr.), New Directions Books, 2006 (originalmente publicado em dinamarquês em 1969).

Text

universalities

6

I see that I am here by choice

See that I do not vanish

Though I may want to

See that there is no connection between what I want

And what I would choose

See that I must start over

On good and evil

Inger Christensen, It, Susanna Nied (trad.), Anne Carson (intr.), New Directions Books, 2006 (originalmente publicado em dinamarquês em 1969).

Text

variabilities

1

After the first morning I seek

the lips' crude formulations

Again and again I kiss the memory of

pass me! pass me! The salt and the white

consciousness in endless writing

What you gave my thoughts is words and

excrement, a body with the functions

of a star

What you gave me is pure morning

My passion: to go further

Inger Christensen, It, Susanna Nied (trad.), Anne Carson (intr.), New Directions Books, 2006 (originalmente publicado em dinamarquês em 1969).

Stage

transitivities

7

Because it will end in unbearable scenes

Because the conditions for doing things for others are others

Because the corpses were doused with acid long ago

Because the stench stimulates sociability

Because the void (say, in the stomach), stimulates production

Because nausea creates fertile ground for artificial needs

Because acid triggers the craving for fullness

Because the belch is part of politics

Because the conditions for belching are reserved for the few

Because a place in the wings is reserved for the few

Because things happen in the wings

Because this things must not come to light 

Because words set the stage for the world

Because the world keeps words in their places

Because there exists a loathing for it all

the mirror has a kind of inverted validity

that the truth lacks

Inger Christensen, It, Susanna Nied (trad.), Anne Carson (intr.), New Directions Books, 2006 (originalmente publicado em dinamarquês em 1969).

Stage

integrities

3

in labyrinths of light and light-green leaves

in terror-labyrinths where the sky is clear

and life a matter of course

far too matter-of-course

there is a taste of plaster of stone of crowbar

off-limits   no entry    danger

I am a face that turns its face away

a stone that when it turns over

is a stone

Inger Christensen, It, Susanna Nied (trad.), Anne Carson (intr.), New Directions Books, 2006 (originalmente publicado em dinamarquês em 1969).

Stage

variabilities

5

My world is discontinuous

in relation to the world as a whole

and in relation to you

it has wings

My world is a language through water

with the shining nerves distributed

as when the sun in water randomly generously

anyway it has wings

Wings of water

And I want you to know that there is a certain effect 

it has a certain tingly effect

a rejoicing at the absence of cause

Leap says the word and I fly

That's how I drown my world in the world

Inger Christensen, It, Susanna Nied (trad.), Anne Carson (intr.), New Directions Books, 2006 (originalmente publicado em dinamarquês em 1969).

Action

symmetries

8.

A society can be stone-hard

That it fuses into a block

A people can be so bone-hard

That life goes into shock

And the heart is all in shadow

And the heart has almost stopped

Till some begin to build

A city as soft as a body

Inger Christensen, It, Susanna Nied (trad.), Anne Carson (intr.), New Directions Books, 2006 (originalmente publicado em dinamarquês em 1969).

Stage

connectivities

Avec comme pour langage

rien qu'un battement aux cieux

Stéphane Mallarmé

2

What's written is always something else

And what's described is something else again

Between them lies the undescribed

which as soon as it's described

opens up new undescribed areas

It's undescribable

Even though darkness is described by light

and light by darkness

something's always left out.

And even if this something is "defined"

as razed gardens

behind iron fencing that grows

logic is always left

And even though the logic is not defined

but concealed beneath layers of gardens

painted from garden to garden

there's still a restlessness left

a despair

a pulse with no body

This is a criticism of the body

because it's a criticism of life.

Inger Christensen, It, Susanna Nied (trad.), Anne Carson (intr.), New Directions Books, 2006 (originalmente publicado em dinamarquês em 1969).