Tarkovsky's Horses and other poems

by Pia Tafdrup, David McDuff (Translator)

Tarkovsky's Horses is about loss in a double sense. The themes of the poems are my father's increasing forgetfulness, his loss of his faculties and then my loss of a father. The book is a poetic portrayal of the course of an illness for which science has few words - my father begins to suffer from dementia, and then he has to go into a nursing home, where he dies. Disintegration of identity and its inexorable progress are followed through every phase, in a concrete and naked form that makes use of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The poems about a father who forgets more and more are set in a border landscape which is also not without its comical aspects. The poems narrate the drama of what it is to be a human being.

Genres: Poetry, Denmark, Danish

159 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2006

About the author

Pia Tafdrup is a Danish writer; primarily a poet, she has also written a novel and two plays, as well as works for radio.
Pia Tafdrup's work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and her poetry collections "Spring Tide" (1989) and "Queen's Gate" (2001) have been translated into English. She was elected as a member of the Danish Literary Academy in 1989; she was awarded the Nordic Council's Literary Prize in 1999, and the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize in 2006. In 2001, she was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Om tab og erindring af en far

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

En rejse igennem en sidste tid. En far som i livet træder mere og mere ind i et glemslens diffuse rige. Skønsang om liv, væren, erindring og død. Om den svære afsked.

Tarkovskijs heste beskriver særligt den fase, hvori vi siger farvel til en person med et levet liv og en proces, hvor sygdom langsomt overskygger et sindet mere og mere dag for dag.

Vi får ikke løsning eller forløsning her. Men fine og skrøbelige krystaller at betragte liv, forældrekærlighed og det sidste farvel igennem.

[Katrine]

Dikt er veldig vanskelig for meg å rangere ol., men denne diktsamlingen var absolutt fin. Sterke og fine dikt om faren som har demens og sorgen som følger. Jeg las denne i forbindelse med studiet Nordisk språk og litteratur, og vi så på denne i lys av sorgteorier.

[Jonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mooi, maar soms ook erg ''bij de grond'