Vintergata

Låna mig din röst #1

by Kjell Espmark

Imagine moments when all the experience and all the values of a human being are condensed into a sudden insight. The universe of time surrounding you might then glitter like a milky way from such epiphanies -
sometimes ecstatic, more often bitter but always with the luster of human understanding. Among them you could even suspect black holes, fortunes so bitter and inexplicable that they cannot emit any light at all. If we managed to pick up these various testimonies, how would they sound? It is the task of the poet to answer this question - a challenge that could be worded: "Lend me your voice!" The moments recreated in this way form a series of poems ranging from the earliest times to the present, a modest history on the margin of History.
A similar catalogue was begun more than two thousand years ago by the anonymous Greek poets who gave voices to the many dead in the work known as The Greek Anthology - an inspiration also for Edgar Lee Masters in The Spoon River Anthology.
"Vintergata is the best collection of poetry published so far by a Swedish poet in the 21st century." -Svenska Dagbladet Newspaper

Genres: Poetry

118 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Kjell Erik Espmark (19 February 1930 – 18 September 2022) was a Swedish writer, literary historian, member of the Swedish Academy and Professor of the History of Literature at Stockholm University.

Reviews

[Angelica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mitt hjärta värker.

Det är så sorgligt att läsa Espmarks dikter i Vintergata och man har hela tiden döden som tittar över axeln.