A handful of variations

BY JÓN YNGVI JÓHANNSSON

Peter Nielsen
Life suggests
Lindhardt og Ringhof. DK

A well-weathered cliché goes, that it suffices that a book of poems contains but a single good poem for it to have served its purpose; more cannot be demanded. Peter Nielsen's book of poetry, Livet foreslår ( Life suggests ), starts with a poem that meets this criteria so fully that the reader might be tempted to close the book right away so as not to destroy the initial feeling. The poem in question is quite simply perfect in form and thought; it is unexpected, colourful and ironic. It shows the world in a fresh light; nature and our interpretation of it is depicted in jocular fashion, while at the same time its cruelty is exposed. There is nothing to add or to subtract. But as the poem is also called 'a modest thesis of interpretation', one is tempted to read on to discover the doors this thesis promises to open to see where they might lead.

Nielsen's book can be divided into three parts: the second one, beginning after the above-mentioned first poem, comprises six poems. The third part is a long poem in 35 parts, entitled 'En ufornuftig glæde' ('Irrational joy'). The six poems in the second part act as a preliminary to the third part. In the former the stage is set for a great spectacle and a long journey, as can be surmised from titles such as 'Territory' and 'Plan', as well as from comments made by the poem's persona: "My stand on tradition? It is like / the chess-game we were playing that time / in the airport when some mutt turned the board over." We are entering a literary landscape in the company of a persona who is mapping and interpreting the territory, while mulling over ontological questions, such as what is means to be a human being, alone and in contact with others.

Perhaps it is not surprising that this critic misread, more than once, the word 'buskadser' ('hedge') for 'budskaber' ('messages'). Landscape and existence are connected, and questions concerning existence and identity naturally spring forth from the poet's perception of trees and hedges, the flight of birds and the travels of man. As the poem progresses, more and more refrains, paths, roads and tracks appear, up to a point where it appears as if the journey is taking a more definitive course. But this 'definitive course' is never realised and the long poem ends with the cryptic last lines "To die would not be an adventure",   which send the reader right back into the poem to search for adventure in life and existence.

The long poem indeed has no clear-cut progression. It is, however held together by a handful of themes and variations on these. One of the themes in the poem is inherent in the title of the book, Life suggests . On page 69 the poem goes: Life suggests/ a few variations and fails to inform which theme these are based on". It is tempting to read these lines as a guide to the poem as a whole. It is however difficult and probably not very fruitful to venture to read the poem, in its entirety, into a particular context or to try to find in it a particular thread. Certain of the poetic images and questions posed are more potent considered apart and independently from the whole. This is why it is inviting to read the book as a poetical buffet and to throw overboard all ideas about an overall impression or meaning. The variations that such a reading offers are diverse. These are poems that discuss, without irony, the big questions about existence itself, and, to the same extent, the big questions concerning poetry, about the poet who accepts the challenge and goes on to create ever newer variations of the themes that life has to offer.

Translated from Icelandic by Geir Svansson