Sight of Light • The Sound of Clouds • The Touch of Skin

Pia Tafdrup was born in 1952 in Copenhagen. She has published over 20 books in Danish since her first collection appeared in 1981, and her work has been translated into many languages. Her fourth collection, Spring Tide, was published in English by Forest in 1989. In 1991 she published a celebrated statement of her poetics, Walking Over Water. She received the 1999 Nordic Council Literature Prize – Scandinavia’s most prestigious literary award – for Queen's Gate, which was published in David McDuff’s English translation by Bloodaxe in 2001. Also in 2001, she was appointed a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, and in 2006 she received the Nordic Prize from the Swedish Academy.Most of Pia Tafdrup's poetry collections have been linked by themes, including The Salamander Quartet (2002–2012). Written over ten years, its first two parts were The Whales in Paris and Tarkovsky’s Horses, translated by David McDuff and published by Bloodaxe in 2010 as Tarkovsky’s Horses and other poems. This was followed in 2015 by Salamander Sun and other poems, McDuff’s translation of The Migrant Bird’s Compass and Salamander Sun, the third and fourth parts of the quartet. In 2014 she published the first volume in a quintet of books about the five senses, Smagen af stål (The Taste of Steel), which was followed by Lugten af sne (The Smell of Snow). These two were brought together by Bloodaxe in one volume in David McDuff's translation in 2021 as The Taste of Steel • The Smell of Snow. The third, fourth and fifth volumes were Synet af lys (2018), Lyden af skyer (2020) and Berøringen af skyer (2022), combined in in one volume in David McDuff's translation, The Sight of Light • The Sound of Clouds • The Touch of Skin (Bloodaxe Books, 2025).

In The Taste of Steel and The Smell of Snow, the first two volumes in a new five-part series of collections relating to the five senses by Danish poet Pia Tafdrup, the starting point is this: the essentiality of taste and smell, and their ability to puncture through the isolation of the mind. In our predominantly visual society, Tafdrup goes back to the two senses which, many argue, we are un-learning. The result is that the poet does not only look at their place in everyday sensualities, but also – and perhaps firstly – prods their limits, pushes their boundaries to see how far into the spiritual they would allow her to stretch.

• THE SIGHT OF LIGHT (2018) I The darkness dreams the sun out19 Birth light 20 Bonfire 21 From the bedrock 22 Tokyo by night24 Desire is born night after night25 The eyes, the planets of the skull28 The katsura tree II Burning point31 Shoals32 Narcisa grows keen on technology 34 Expectations 36 Burning glass 37 Feng Shui 38 The other side 40 Swallows III Mirror42 The nightdress43 Mirror image45 Bread and circuses47 My sister with a halo 49 The camera’s caress IV Ordeal by fire53 Fiery sword54 Icarus57 The fire is mother to the ash 59 Forest fires 60 Flight V Life is a drama63 Jacques-Louis David: The Death of Marat66 Pablo Picasso: Guernica68 Frida Kahlo: The Wounded Deer 70 Gerhard Richter: Five Doors 73 Anselm Kiefer: Starfall VI Inspection77 Arctic wilderness 78 The bull’s gaze80 Angry composer 81 School for architects82 The eye of the Cyclops84 The borders between us 86 Sightseeing spot VII The shadow of a dream89 Perpetual state of emergency 90 Night-blind92 Librarian in grey weather 94 Picture stream96 My view reduced 97 The inner cinema99 Blind trust VIII Transparency103 Aura 104 From Barents’ final voyage 106 Prelude to coupling 107 Veil108 The rainbow IX The soul in the eye110 Carpe diem 111 Your gaze meets mine113 Spark of life114 Embrace116 Shone through117 To make women and men shine118 Passage, light *THE SOUND OF CLOUDS (2020) I Prelude. The sounds are simply here123 Hear with eye and heart124 Clouds don’t stop125 Danish daily sounds128 The conch shell130 The sense of hearing never switches off II Acoustic alphabet134 Harmony135 The sound of the name137 Newborn language139 We are children, we shout141 Rain143 Many-stringed instrument145 Listening inward III The pain threshold of eardrums149 Thunderclap150 The Devil’s interval152 The street’s epicentre154 It could be gunfire156 Beethoven maltreated IV Resonance rooms 158 Absence of sound159 Tinnitus161 Seasons intercepted163 Do I hear the radio?165 Song for a foetus V Nobody owns the clouds169 Nobody owns the clouds. For Glenn Gould171 Star-pulse. For Patti Smith173 O Superwoman. For Laurie Anderson175 Soul on a journey. For Brian Eno177 ‘Simple Song Number 3’. For Sumi Jo VI Redevelopments 180 Bees in Linden181 Gong183 Saunte Number 17185 The sewing-machine187 The bang before it comes VII Out of a mouth190 No one has seen God191 Edvard Munch: The Scream192 Your voice194 My voice197 The deaf seamstress199 Like two people present201 Authentic voice?203 Hephaestus forges205 From the realm of the dead VIII Sound pictures209 The room drawn210 Through the open window212 The bells of City Hall214 Stillness before the hurricane217 Unwanted sounds218 Centre219 The deer and IIX Postlude. Freedom exists223 The left hand’s road to freedom224 Clouds touch me226 White noise228 Van Gogh’s ear233 Speak softly234 Pauses235 The stillness is coming * THE TOUCH OF SKIN (2022) I Yearning sits beneath the skin240 Favourite word 241 Have only my body 243 Butterfly wings245 My skin my limit 248 Embrace II Confrontation with elements250 The wind loves me 251 The water transforms 253 Fire and song 255 Earth poem 257 The cannula through the skin III The hands260 My mother’s blind cousin261 In my pocket263 Bread265 The rose I hold 267 Bodily visitation269 Touching decay 271 Massage IV Fight275 Fight club 276 Local anaesthetic 277 Under the skin behind the ribs279 Battles 280 Scars 281 My knee 283 The Chernobyl wind V Five materials. A catalogue of touch286 Trees, people287 The marble ball 289 The hand finds its way to the glass291 The lady holds the unicorn’s horn. A gobelin293 Nefertiti. A plaster bust VI Presence 297 The star place 298 The fingers meet the world300 Child and ladybird302 The feet like sand304 The enigma of the flesh306 Capsized robin 307 Today I got the explanation 309 The body feels the liquids leave it 311 Round the table VII Absence314 Embraces, eternity315 In constant reconstruction of a dance 317 The bat effect 321 The hand-shy child 322 Gentle whispering VIII Caress326 Your hand and mine 327 With a creature in his arms 328 The bench in Gudhjem328 Your face 331 You are a sky 332 Crazy and in love334 The horizon IX The solar system of hope 336 The solar system of hope 337 My son has built a fire338 A landscape awakes in me 339 We move the night 343 The weight of a life * NOTES349 The Sight of Light350 The Sound of Clouds351 The Touch of Skin