Couldn’t resist a last-minute Christmas post with two seasonal holiday cards from from faraway friends. The first is from award-winning author (and translator) Bengt Jangfeldt, writing from Stockholm. He cites the words of our mutual friend, the Polish poet and friend Adam Zagajewski, who died in 2021 (still hard to write those words), whose lines from “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” translated by the matchless Clare Cavanagh, were never more timely, never more urgent.
The second is from Oslo-based Swedish poet and translator Håkan Sandell, and features a more traditional winter image, a young girl braving the northern winter weather and Arctic darkness with a candle.
Wherever you are, I hope the holiday brings peace, love, and healing for our mutilated world.
Tags: Bengt Jangfeldt, Håkan Sandell