I am currently working on a new translation project of a work by Tove Ditlevsen, author of The Copenhagen Trilogy. Many thanks to World Literature Today for publishing an excerpt from the project.
Here is how it begins:
When a woman’s husband leaves her, she feels betrayed by her daughter, who had not been able to fulfill her duty, her purpose for coming into existence.
Merete never asked herself if she was in love with Karsten. What mattered were his feelings toward her. To be in love is a luxury that demands a certain surplus of vitality. For someone who isn’t very strong or very young, it is best to avoid it. Being in love requires a rise, a climax, and a fall, and if you can’t bear the fall, you have to be on guard. Merete’s love for her ex-husband, Robert, had taught her that foremost in every relationship is always being the one in control, the one with the clear head. She was like an animal who had been ambushed from behind, who was reluctant to be on open terrain ever since. But she trusted Karsten, insofar that she knew his feelings for her would not change, as long as she didn’t change the way she was with him. She vaguely acknowledged to herself that he would “see the light” when he “saw her as she really was.”
Perhaps she thought this way because she had never experienced the comfort and security a woman could claim from marriage. When a woman is over thirty, life ought to have made it possible for her to develop a personality from the raw materials it once put in her hands. She was expected to have a point of view, a calm comportment; she ought to have found her element and be in harmony with herself. And preferably have a person she feels safe with, someone on whom she can lean her forehead in the twilight after a long day and whisper tired and tenderly, “You know, we’re getting old”—someone who views her years as a wiser glint in her eye, her more profound smile. A person has to be at ease in order for the best of their nature to develop and be of use to others.
You can read the full excerpt on World Literature Today.
And here’s a link to the story of how I happened to find out about Ditlevsen and her work.
Photo by Hollie Santos / Unsplash
