The Roads Have Come to an End Now: Selected and Last Poems

by Rolf Jacobsen, Robert Bly (Translator), Robert Hedin (Translator)

Norway's Rolf Jacobsen is one of Europe's most acclaimed writers yet, as Robert Bly points out in his introduction: "This magnificent poet is so little known in the United States." This bilingual edition, which selects the best work from Jacobsen's ten volumes, will help remedy that situation.

Three dedicated translators contribute to this book. Robert Bly's translations celebrate the radiance with which Jacobsen praised the complex beauty of the Earth; Robert Hedin focuses on the countryside, creature, and star poems; and Roger Greenwald draws difficult emotions from Jacobsen's charged last poems, composed while his wife struggled with fatal illness—as when he remembers their bitter-cold wedding day during World War II:

Road to the church was blocked with barbed wire.
I remember we clambered over the rail fence of the parsonage.
—Hey, your dress is caught
—no, not there—over there.
We tramped the furrows of an ice-crusted
potato field, up to the minister
who was in his surplice and had
the Scriptures ready.
—Love is a path you must walk, he says. Yes, we said.
But my lord what muddy feet we had!
When we got in bed that night
we cried a dab—both of us. God
knows why.
And then the long life began.

Rolf Jacobsen was born in 1907 and lived his adult life north of Oslo. He worked as a journalist and newspaper editor and played a critical role in introducing modernism to Norwegian poetry. His poetry has been translated into nearly thirty languages. A member of the Norwegian Academy of Language and Literature, he was honored with many prizes and awards, including the Norwegian Critics' Prize and the Grand Nordic Prize from the Swedish Academy. Jacobsen died in 1994.

Genres: Poetry

212 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

Reviews

[David Radavich]

This luminous, startlingly original Norwegian poet is one of the twentieth century's best, but scarcely known in the U.S., which is a pity. He is worth learning Norwegian for. Unfortunately, the English translations here don't do the sharply etched originals justice. Robert Bly translates the final half-line of "My Tree" as "I want to be a tree like that." But the original delivers more force: "Ah, were I like that" (my translation). So much more terse longing in the Norwegian. Nonetheless, a fabulous read, especially if you take time, as I do, to work through the beauties of Scandinavian syntax and phrasing.

[Joshua Paul]

Many of the best poems I have ever read are in this short volume. You have to sit down after reading them.

[Kayla]

These beautiful poems by Norwegian poet Rolf Jacobson (translated by Robert Bly, Roger Greenwald, and Robert Hedin) span his lifetime. My favorites are the poems he wrote about his wife’s death; so filled with longing:

Did I know you

Did I know you
really. Things
You never quite said or
we let lie. Half-thought
thoughts. A shadow
that passed over your face.
Something in your eyes. No,
I don’t want to believe that.
But it comes back. Night
has no sounds,
only strange thoughts. Words
that rise up from my sleep:
Did I know you?

[Curt Hopkins Hopkins]

His poems are quiet, like a pastor
Out in a field giving a sermon
To a congregation of mice.
The wind carries his voice
In another direction. Afterward
He shakes hands with each parishioner.

But often in these quiet poems
You hear the roar of quasars,
The glassy song of galaxies
Turning on their hubs.

[Michael]

I’m very glad I read these poems. The writer is simple and true and clear. His translators, particularly Robert Bly, have done an excellent job. He doesn’t write about extraordinary things - he writes about the most ordinary things and holds them up to the light. And because of that one can see a long, long way down the road. I loved these poems.

[Ellie]

Reading at random here and there... Some of the most beautiful modern poetry I've ever read. I had never heard of this author but apparently he is well known in Europe. Absolutely stunning and lyrical imagery, and an excellent collection and translation.

[Mavis Dixon]

I have been moved, transported to physical spaces, elevated and amused by these poems.

Bly takes liberties in his translations that make for excellent poetry.

Part of the fun of the bilingual translation is tracing the transformation through the common etymology present in both Norwegian and English words. I can't read Norwegian but I can pick away at it like a puzzle.

[Dan Gobble]

Wonderful poems! My first reading of these went by quickly, in only three days, but their impact on my life will be felt for years to come. Thanks to Robert Bly, Roger Greenwald, and Robert Hedin for translating these poems in English. One of my favorites is called "Breathing Exercises":
If you go out far enough
you'll see the sun as just a spark
in a dying fire
if you go out far enough.

If you go out far enough
you'll see the whole wheel of the Milky Way
turning on the roads of the night
if you go out far enough.

If you go out far enough
you'll see the Universe itself,
billions of light-years, all of time
as just a glimmer, as lonely and distant
as a star on a June night.

And yet, my friend, if you go out far enough
you'll just be at the beginning

-- of yourself.
~Rolf Jacobsen~ (translated by Robert Hedin, p. 131)

[Brian]

More so than with other translated poets, I feel like I'm missing a great deal reading Jacobsen in English. This edition is bilingual, though, and despite my complete ignorance of Norwegian (or any Scandinavian language), it was fun to try and read the original words. There are some beautiful images, that probably work well across languages, such as: "The morning paper is opened out on the 7.35/ and suddenly provides all the men with white wings."