Oberlin College Press

Inge Pedersen

THE THIRTEENTH MONTH (translated by Marilyn Nelson)

Paper $14.95 (ISBN 0-932440-36-3)

Winner of the American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Prize.

The Thirteenth Month introduces acclaimed Danish poet Inge Pedersen to English-speaking readers for the first time, in a volume of translations by the distinguished American poet/translator Marilyn Nelson. Spanning her career since 1982, The Thirteenth Month is an opportunity for a brand-new audience to appreciate the lyricism and realism of one of Europe's finest poets.

"In Pedersen's work commonplace experience is given grace by the vividness of her imagination, lifting everyday ordinaries into everyday miracle. A rich and rare achievement."
--John F. Deane

"Reading these poems in their beautiful translations is like inhaling a breath of the cold clear air of Jutland that the poet knows so well."
--William Jay Smith

THE THIRTEENTH MONTH

January morning.
New fallen snow. Now my friends too
are beginning to die in a column
in the newspaper and snow so thick, the garden surrenders.
Surrenders its role as well-kept lawns, beds
with blushing summer-mild phlox. And in this light
there is no one who has any need to hop in the car
looking radiantly sunburned
and happy. No one exists forever.
And no one consists
of anything more than water and maybe some other
molecules of longing, the whole thing the eating
feeling of hunger. To grasp
the thirteenth month. Whose light
is a chance to fill your yard with living
shouting small children with sleds.
To throw yourself down on your back in the new fallen snow
and with outspread arms

--Inge Pedersen
translated by Marilyn Nelson

Translation copyright c 2005 by Marilyn Nelson. May not be reproduced without permission.