translated by David McDuff

Together with everyone else  
everyone is   
the only one, equipped with  
our own mouth, nose, eyes, ears, skin,   
a world of senses,  
so we can sense the world.  

It is not possible to sense  
through others,  
a distance is given.  
Earth, light,  
there is a table with gifts,  
no one  
must be outside.  

Together with everyone else  
everyone is  
referred to their own sensations  
to survive, not be hurt.  
Not everyone is equipped  
with all the senses,  
instead, the other senses come into play.  

Everyone  
Is equipped with senses   
in order that we may feel  
we are not robots.  

Everyone  
is equipped with senses  
so that no one shall doubt  
their own existence. 

Everyone  
is equipped with senses  
so they can navigate  
in chaos, go with heart first.  

Everyone   
is equipped with doors that stand open   
so that what is out can get in,  
and we can direct our attention out.  

Everyone  
is equipped with senses  
that can change everything  
when the brain begins to interpret.  

Everyone  
is equipped with senses,  
not only to be a witness,  
but also be moved ourselves.   

Everyone is equipped with senses  
So they can feel  
the weight of life.  

Everyone  
can experience the passage  
from one sphere to another  
by touching and being touched  
find peace in the soul. 

Together with everyone else  
you and I are  
referred to our own sensations  
to feel what it means  
to love and lose, to be in the world. 

---

Pia Tafdrup (www.tafdrup.com) b. 1952. Danish poet and writer, member of The Danish Academy. She has received the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize in 1999 and the Nordic Prize in 2006 from The Swedish Academy. Pia Tafdrup has published 20 collections of poetry. Her first book When an Angel Breaks her Silence was published in 1981. Among others: The Salamander Quartet (2002-2012): The Whales in Paris (2002), Tarkovsky´s Horses (2006), The Migrant Birds´ Compass (2010) and Salamander Sun (2012). (Eng. Tarkovsky´s Horses & Other Poems 2010) and (Eng. Salamander Sun & Other Poems 2015).  Latest: The Five Senses: The Taste of Steel (2014), The Smell of Snow (2016), The Sight of Light (2018), The Sound of Clouds (2020) and The Touch of Skin (2022). The Taste of Steel & The Smell of Snow, Bloodaxe 2021.  She has also published a statement of her poetics, Walking over the Water, two plays and two novels. Her poems are translated into more than 30 languages in books, magazines, and anthologies. 

David McDuff (b. 1945) has translated several of Pia Tafdrup’s collections, all with Bloodaxe Books, UK. He is also known as a translator of nineteenth century Russian literature, including Dostoevsky’s The House of the Dead, Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Idiot, all in Penguin Classics.