Frost Letter (from Spring Tide, 1984)

Scandinavian Review, Winter 1996 by Tafdrup, Pia

Dearest

Last night the frost came and this morning snow from the southeast it fell so quietly almost unnoticeably as only the year's first snow can drift down suddenly white and it made us speak in voices turned toward each other in a different way with words unpacked from last winter

It was a marvelous morning better than I've seen in ages HAPPY SNOWDAY! cried my son as he went running from table to sofa from window to window of course you can't just walk when it's snowing suddenly white as I'm sure you know

We'll have a winter like the one in '66 snow into April, said the mailman and handed me the paper I promised him a beer if he turned out to be right - but not till April!

Dearest, the whole day has been so wonderful in the afternoon as I was reading Frank O'Hara who has always spoken directly to the shadows in my blood I suddenly saw him smile at me from his picture just twenty-five years old you can't imagine how happy this made me

Dearest, it's been much too long since I heard from you if you're snowed in maybe you'll have time to write? if we really have winter from November to April how many letters we could manage to write - I hope the frost has come to stay.

Love

Pia Tafdrup made her literary debut in 1980 and has since published eight volumes of poetry that have earned her wide recognition. She has also edited two anthologies of contemporary Danish poetry and has published two plays and a volume of poetics. In 1989 she was inducted into the Danish Academy. Her work has also been translated into Swedish, French, and German. Roger Greenwald, poet and translator from Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish has won awards from his work in both fields including the ASF Translation Prize in 1990 and 1996, and an NEA Translation Fellowship. Major awards for poetry include the CBS Radio Literary Award in 1994.