Lys og Græs

by Inger Christensen

Light, Grass, and Letter in April is the first book in English to appear since the great Danish poet’s death in January 2009. Light (1962) and Grass (1963), her first published works, introduce her genius for the music of everyday speech, and her approaches to the themes she’d pursue throughout her life: the primacy of nature, the enigmatic boundaries between the self and the other, and the role of language as a mediator between human experience and reality. Letter in April (1979), Christensen’s most intimate book, examines love and loss, self and loss of self, echoing musical structures developed by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. It was written in collaboration with the Danish artist Johanne Foss, whose accompanying drawings helped to catalyze the poems.

Genres: Poetry

119 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Inger Christensen was born in Vejle, Denmark, in 1935. Initially she studied medicine, but then trained as a teacher and worked at the College of Art in Holbæk from 1963–64. Although she has also written a novel, stories, essays, radio plays, a drama and an opera libretto, Christensen is primarily known for her linguistically skilled and powerful poetry.

Christensen first became known to a wider audience with the volumes "Lys" (1962; Light) and "Græs" (1963; Grass), which are much influenced by the modernistic imagery of the 60s, and in which she is concerned with the location of the lyric "I" in relation to natural and culturally created reality. The flat, regular landscape of Denmark, its plants and animals, the beach, the sea, the snow-filled winters have determined the topography of many of her poems. Christensen has also been known internationally since the appearance of the long poem "Det" (1969; "it" 2006), a form of creative report on the merger of language and the world, which centres around the single word "it" and covers more than two hundred pages. The book clearly reveals the influence on Christensen's poetic work of such a range of authors as Lars Gustafsson, Noam Chomsky, Viggo Brøndal, R.D. Laing and Søren Kierkegaard. The analogy between the development of poetic language and the growth of life is, as in "Det", also the basic motif of the volume of poetry "Alfabet" (1981; Alphabet). In addition to the alphabet itself – which gives the book its title and provides a logical arrangement for its fourteen sections –, the structure is generated by the so-called Fibonacci series, in which every number consists of the sum of the preceding two. The composition reflects the theme exactly: while "Det" points to the story of creation and its "In the beginning was the Word", here the alphabet is a pointer to the "A and O" of the apocalypse.

The story of her life and work offers access to a poetry that is difficult and enigmatic, but simultaneously simple and elementary. Inger Christensen is one of the most reflecting, form-conscious poets of the present day, and her history of ideas also provides information on the paradox of lyric art; making legible through poetic means what must necessary remain illegible, and in this way wrestling a specific order from the universal labyrinth. Here the transitions between the poet and the essayist Christensen are fluid: just as lyrical figures and motifs give her essays a density of their own, figures of thought and configurations of ideas return as an organic component of the poems.

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 3 out of 5]

And we talk about
the pine
in the middle of the yard.
Maybe what it remembers
is the wind.
Maybe what it remembers
is the sound.
A place
between
pine
wind
and fire.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Men’s voices in the dark
—once in a temple—
men’s voices in the sun
—once I was caryatid
number nine—
men’s voices in the park
—I was a statue
untouchable naked
with no other mirror
than the fingers of the air
yielding to thought after thought
with no other sadness
than the rustling of leaves—
men’s voices in the park:
why did they waken me?

- - - -

Already on the street
with our money clutched
in our hands,
and the world is a white laundry,
where we are boiled and wrung
and dried and ironed,
and smoothed down
and forsaken
we sweep
back
in children’s dreams
of chains and jail
and the heartfelt sigh
of liberation
and in the spark trails
of feelings
the fire eater
the cigarette swallower
come
to light
and we pay
and distance ourselves
with laughter.

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume contains three of Inger Christensen's collections: Light (1962), Grass (1963) and Letter in April (1979)—her first, second, and third books of poetry. Her third collection was her monumental 300-page masterpiece "it." Having read most of her poetry and prose available in English this year, it was interesting to go back and read her earliest work and see in the seeds of the experimentalism that she will put into play in "it" and "Alphabet." Her distinctive understanding of words and an affinity for nature come through. Letter in April, written in response to the drawings of artist Johanne Foss, employs a structure adapted from modern musician that can be read in two different ways. A wonderful compilation of poetry.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2025/10/24/in...

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

who can think any longer of beauty, all the strangers move side by side in the one you love, if you offer your body to him it is the word you offer, which they do not understand -- and who dares speak anymore of the beauty of understanding -- if you offer bread, it is the people deep under the earth, high over the earth in the mighty swaying flocks, who say thank you, go off and sit in the chair, read the paper and do not understand

but who dares speak anymore of the necessity of understanding

[Francisco Barrios]

De acuerdo con la segunda de forros, la cumbre de la poesía danesa del s. XX es Inger Christensen. En este volumen encontramos reunidos sus dos primeros títulos: “Luz” (1962) y “Hierba” (1963) y sigo guardando una opinión dividida sobre su quehacer poético.

No voy a negar que algunos poemas y muchos versos son geniales. Logrados a tal punto, como para sobrevivir a la traducción del danés al español y conservar el descubrimiento poético:

«Sorprendida

Sorprendida hinchada desprendida
o aún no echada a perder del todo
con los electrodos grises del futuro
aplicados a la pálida yema
de los dedos de la memoria
digo entre balbuceos
que voy a ser buena».

O bien:

«Amanecer

El viento que estría
el día una mañana
las plumas de los búhos
de un modo más luminoso
la mente cambiante
se reduce
algo desapareció».

Sin embargo, muchos de sus poemas con su sintaxis quebrada, imágenes simples en rápida sucesión, oscilantes entre el futurismo sesentero o el panteísmo naturalista que experimentaba con el lenguaje me dejaron confundido —por decir lo menos— con un sentimiento de no estar entendiendo nada y sin una idea clara de hacia dónde quería llevarme la poeta.

Un libro que no es para mí y que no me atrevería a recomendar.

[Ba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry. Her and Aleixandre remind me a bit of each other, but I keep thinking of Bidart when I see the way she has arranged an individual book of poetry (esp "Letter in April"). With Christensen (esp with Letter in April) the arrangement of poems in the book is inextricable to her expression. Literally order emerging from what seemed incomprehensible, chaotic. Heightened emotion, a sort of resolution. (For me) Should be read in one sitting, each book so it can be held in the mind.
End of Letter in April reminded me of one of my favourite Louise Gluck lines in wording and also in many ways in the way the image was used in the respective books: "a pine blowing in a high wind like man in the universe." It was a funny jolt for me (repeating of the world). "Maybe what it remembers is the wind. Maybe what it remembers is the sound. A place between pine wind and fire."
Anne Carson's blurb helped me. Really "an account of what is [...] what we are in the midst of."
Thank you to Susanna Nied and Inger Christensen for changing my mind!

[Víctor Bermúdez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gry

Dagen som rifles
af vinden en morgen
uglernes fjer
på en lysere måde
sindet som skifter
formindskes
noget forsvandt
92

Amanecer

El viento que estría
el día una mañana
las plumas de los búhos
de un modo más luminoso
la mente cambiante
se reduce
algo desapareció
93

[jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

inger christensen, the late danish poet, was most prolific throughout the 1960s, 70s, & 80s, crafting a number of singular works that brought her international acclaim. perhaps best known for alfabet, her 1981 collection of poems structured upon the fibonacci sequence, christensen's writing is innovative yet measured. light, grass, and letter in april is composed of three distinct works, originally published in 1962, 1963, and 1979, respectively (though never before translated into english). light and grass, christensen's first two works, share more in common, both stylistically and thematically, than letter in april, but all three are punctuated by her strong, lyrical imagery.

christensen's poems, especially those in light and grass, are deeply evocative, as the dampness and solitude of her subjects (beach, ocean, forest) are nearly palpable. though marked by a melancholy apropos of the waning winter days and nights of which she writes, these poems are often hopeful, as if awaiting the promise of another spring with its requisite thawing and return to sunlight. possessed by a sense of place, yet countered by uncertainty and longing, christensen's writing often veers into the ethereal. as echoes of a quiet, seemingly elusive joy resound through these thoughtful and personal poems, the precision of christensen's work is obscured by an abounding musicality. letter in april is a series of poems divided into seven sections, with each of those sections divided into five further subsections, all intended to be read in either the order they appear or in a linked sequence based on the subsection's markings. with the self-imposed constraints that often shaped her writing, inger christensen's books would not be out of place amidst some oulipo works. letter in april features the original accompanying drawings of her friend johanne foss, artist and fellow dane.

"transience" (from light)

the stone on the beach evaporates.
the lake is gone in the sun.
animals' desert skeletons
concealed in the eternal sand.
things wander,
die in each other,
sail like thoughts
in the soul of space.
caravans of living sand.

is this a threat?
where is my heart?
caught in the stone.
concealed in a lake.
beating deep
inside a humped camel
lying and groaning
and dying in sand.

*with an introduction and translation from the danish by susanna nied

[Cindy Hatch · Rating 5 out of 5]

CADA UNO EN SU MAR

Cada uno en su mar
en su profundidad
y en su soberbia
con banderas y brazos y boca
y el terror de la valentía de plumero
cada uno con su corazón
cada uno
con el suyo

[Arturo De Las Casas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me pasaría la vida leyendo poetisas danesas

[Carlos Catena Cózar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es como todo lo que yo algún día quisiera ser capaz de escribir.

[Jerome Berglund · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe someone described this as deceptively simplistic. It’s hard to accurately communicate what Christensen accomplishes here, what she’s doing and how it succeeds while so many others who have tried the same tactics and continue to almost invariably fail, why it’s so very difficult to stick the landing with such a sparing, reductional and minimalistic mode. (Perhaps Sappho and Plath are the only I can think of who I’ve seen pull similar feats off as effectively.) But truly a wonder to behold here, and one finds themselves absorbed and riveted throughout, in sheer excitement at what will come next, wishing the ride you barrel through could never end. Christensen elevates the form of poetry most often scoffed at and ridiculed, misunderstood and unappreciated, and executes it with pizazz par excellence in a fashion the staunchest skeptics and philistines must concede there to be merit encased firmly within, if they’re hard pressed to articulate precisely where or how. She expresses an affinity with Pollock and Etruscan art in her style and approach, and indeed the abstract expressionism and rigidly limited palette employed is immediately apparent. It also brings to mind the restrained and childlike later works of Pablo Picasso, which boiled things down to their bare essentials and yet in so doing achieved something startlingly true and urgent. Astonishing precision for a debut in her freshman and sophomore efforts, I look forward to exploring other collections as soon as I have the opportunity. Tremendous appreciation to translator Susanna Nied for so elegantly transporting these passages into our language from their native Danish.

[Cc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry. Her and Aleixandre remind me a bit of each other, but I keep thinking of Bidart when I see the way she has arranged an individual book of poetry (esp "Letter in April"). With Christensen (esp with Letter in April) the arrangement of poems in the book is inextricable to her expression. Literally order emerging from what seemed incomprehensible, chaotic. Heightened emotion, a sort of resolution. (For me) Should be read in one sitting, each book so it can be held in the mind.
End of Letter in April reminded me of one of my favourite Louise Gluck lines in wording and also in many ways in the way the image was used in the respective books: "a pine blowing in a high wind like man in the universe." It was a funny jolt for me (repeating of the world). "Maybe what it remembers is the wind. Maybe what it remembers is the sound. A place between pine wind and fire."
Anne Carson's blurb helped me. Really "an account of what is [...] what we are in the midst of."
Thank you to Susanna Nied and Inger Christensen for changing my mind!

[Laia · Rating 3 out of 5]

La desgracia de haber leído tan poca poesía es que me cuesta muchísimo leerla y tener la paciencia y constancia para terminar un libro entero.

Quizás este libro es demasiado experimental para una neófita 💔 se me ha ido haciendo más difícil hacia el final de la segunda parte por el formato de los versos. Aún y así me he guardado unos cuantos que me han gustado y que he logrado entender, dejando de lado las interpretaciones literales que inevitablemente hago.

Regalo de @negativedialecticsandglitter 🤍 lectura fuera de mi zona de confort, gracias.

[Alina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a November-book
A little book about death and the cold and you and me.
But in reality, this is a book
about everything.
This is a book about the year; now, the one that passed
and the one that hopefully comes and goes
as the others did.
This is a book about life and warmth
and about those, over there.
This is a book that hit me one morning on the train
on a cold November day,
therefore, it is my November-book
but I shall not take from you that this is/
was/
will be/
your book
about everything

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book for the Read Harder Challenge #23 - Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love. If I'm being honest, these poems were painful to read. This is a collection of three books of poetry, and I only read the last, Letter in April, because I read that it is the most accessible. I picked this poet because she's Danish, but my god, it was awful. I didn't get anything from them, and I don't dislike poetry.

[Jesús Pacheco · Rating 5 out of 5]

es que no puedo con inger christensen me parece una locura todo lo que escribe y es que es imposible no llorar en sus libros y estos dos....... tanto el final de luz y el final de hierba son impresionantes realmente ella está en mi top 3 de escritores favoritos o sea desde que la leí por primera vez no imagino la poesía sin ella leedla de verdad

[Lizette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo hizo otra vez. Inger Christensen nunca escribió una frase mala o intrascendente, ni siquiera en su juventud. Cómo se puede tener tanta potencia, escribir con la precisión da la experiencia y tener menos de treinta años. No entiendo, me sorprende, pero qué agradecida estoy de poder leerla.

[Frida Øster Sørensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay så jeg har lige færdiggjort Lys og Græs af Inger Chistensen, og jeg tror at men skal være på en noget højere level end det jeg befinder mig på atm, sådan jeg ligger på level 24 og man skal være i level 72 for at forstå bogen ordenligt, men det af det jeg forstod lød smukt.

[Jonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inger Christensen is just too good. Was blown away by Alphabet, and so grabbed this one next. Light was good, Grass was better, but Letter in April is so, so good, and I already want to read it again. What a treasure Christensen is. Can't wait to read more.

[María Sánchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creo que hacía mucho tiempo que un libro de poesía no me arrullaba tanto.

[cumnre · Rating 5 out of 5]

uno no se cree que algo así exista

[Pascal · Rating 4 out of 5]

finísimo

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Inger Christensen's it back in 2007 and don't remember it very well: I just remember it being difficult, prickly. I picked up this new volume, which is really three volumes in one, as much because of the cover image as anything else.

Light and Grass were Christensen's first books, from 1962 and 1963; Letter in April is from 1979. I liked the latter the best, though there were moments in the first two that I appreciated. Some of the poems, particularly in the first two books, are too abstract for me; I feel like I can't find a point of entry or anything to grasp. But there are turns of phrase and images I really like, particularly when Christensen's writing about the natural world or the turning seasons, like in the first two lines of a poem called "Sandemose," after a Danish/Norwegian author: "The sun hangs low in the little year/the bracken ponders darkness" (10). I like this, from the end of "Deep Within": "what are we and to what do we cling/at sea two hearts with flares on board" (38). And this, from the start of "Light":

Once more I recognize
a light within language
the closed words
that are there to be loved
and repeated until they are simple (45)

Letter in April features drawings by Johanne Fosse, and an interesting structure: as Susanna Nied explains in her introduction, it contains seven main sections, each of which has "five subsections, marked with small circles o through ooooo, and arranged in varying order"—so you can either read the seven main sections straight through or read all the sections marked by o, then all the ones marked by oo, and so on (x). I liked this part of the book for its concrete images: a summer house, pines, cobwebs, dew, pomegranates.

[Sacha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only made it through the first book, Light. The first quarter of this first of three books took me off guard with its attuned sense of space, music, and image, all which worked in such great harmony to let in light. To my disappointment, the joy which I took from that first quarter shrivelled up in me and left the remaining three quarters poems dead on the page.
As a side note, the drawings in the book, for the most part, strike me as amateur. I have seen better drawings in high school art classes. Why were they included? Does an uninspired sketch of a split pomegranate add anything to the poems? I wouldn't know, I didn't make it that far. Also, the answer is No.

[Rowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly the lyrics were too light and conventional for my tastes, though there was some lovely imagery. But Meeting, the last poem in Grass, was much more impressive, with the innovative syntax and the piling up and slipping through of ideas and images. I'll keep the book but just for that poem.

[Catalina Ríos]

«con la espalda vuelta a mi poema, a mí misma, a mi palabra, me alejo de mí, de mi poema, de mi palabra y me acerco continuamente al interior de mi palabra, de mi poema, de mí»