Danish-born writer Pia Tafdrup is the author of over 20 collections of verse, which are often organised into themed sequences. Her latest is a series of five books on the human senses collectively referred to as the Senses Quintet (2014-2022). The first two parts of the quintet, ‘The Taste of Steel’ and ‘The Smell of Snow’, were published in an English translation in 2021 by Bloodaxe Books. The volume under review is its continuation and consists of parts 3, 4 and 5 of the quintet. Both the first two and the latter three parts were translated by David McDuff. In addition to being recognised as one of the most important contemporary Danish poets, Tafdrup is also a novelist and a playwright. She is a member of both the Danish Academy and the European Academy of Poetry and is the recipient of several prestigious prizes including the Nordic Council Literature prize and the Swedish Academy Nordic prize.

Each of the three books in this collection is divided into nine sections of roughly equal length. The first of the three sets, ‘The Sight of Light’ explores the phenomenon of sight from a bodily perspective, beginning with our first experience of light at the moment of birth and going on to explore the wonder of sight gifted to us through our eyes. It also includes a number of ekphrastic poems written in response to famous works of art such as Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, Kahlo’s ‘Wounded Deer’, Kiefer’s ‘Starfall’ and Richter’s ‘Five Doors’. Of the latter she writes in a poem that is framed in the style of a letter to the artist:

 

     Five doors may be a picture that shows nothingness,

     but I see in it the five books I’m writing

     each with a focus on a single sense, as five entrances

     to the world, all of equal value, like the parallel doors.

 

Tafdrup sees the doors as “a metaphor for openings / into the body and thereby a connection to the world.”

The subject matter is wide-ranging, giving the reader plenty of variation. Concern about climate change is expressed in poems about forest fires burning out of control. There is a poem about Icarus who flew too close to the sun and one on Narcisa who “no longer needs the water’s mirror” but chooses to upload photographs of herself every day, taking on a new pose “to redefine her identity / transform herself”. Tafdrup’s re-tellings of ancient myths are imaginative and innovative as they explore the way others see us and the way we see ourselves. Other poems in this section explore the subject of blindness, some focus on violence and others on the beauty of the natural world as she pauses to admire “the optical phenomenon of a rainbow”.

The middle part of the collection examines the subject of sound. In ‘Hear with eye and heart’ Tafdrup says that hearing is a thread that connects her to the world. In addition to poems that describe the anatomy of the ear, there are ‘list poems’ that explore the daily sounds of everyday living as well as unwanted sounds: everything from the excessive noise of a pneumatic drill to the gentle whirl of a sewing machine. There is a suite of poems dedicated to musicians including Glenn Gould, Brian Eno and Laurie Anderson, a poem about the sound of rain and one on the sound of one’s own name. Once again, Tafdrup examines a polar opposite: imagining what it must be like to be deaf in a world of noise.

The final part of the collection is dedicated to the sense of touch. Here, a poem describing the anatomy of skin is followed by poems that explore the sensation of touching insects, animals, trees, inanimate objects and bodily caresses. Another sequence examines feelings experienced by the absence of touch. This theme is captured beautifully in ‘A landscape awakes in me’ where, observing a rural scene from a train journey from Córdoba to Madrid, Tafdrup writes:

 

     I touch neither trees or animals, the red earth

     or the grass, but the landscape touches

     something in me, I sit on the train, looking out,

     something comes to life in me,

     touches without a touch

     as the love that lights up the whole world

     flies towards a magnetic storm of stars.

 

In the concluding poem. ‘The weight of a life’ we read that

 

     Everyone

     is equipped with senses

     so that none of us shall doubt

     our own existence

     ….

 

     Everyone is equipped with senses

     so we can feel

     the weight of life.

 

Reading this collection we become more aware of our human senses and this, in turn, makes us more aware of the world around us and our responses to it. Tafdrup brings home to us the miracle of life and makes us glad to be alive.

 

Pia Tafdrup, The Sight of Light. The Sound of Clouds. The Touch of Skin, Bloodaxe, £14.99