New Paintings, Early Poems
Mehren, Stein: Nye bilder, tidlige diktAutumnal
Frost rattles in the dry rivers, the star-flooded beds
The stream has gone wild into the nights with
a mouth full of large stones
The distant snowy mountain sweeps the nights like a floodlight
The stars have fallen out of the forests
down into an icy-clear sea
(From Gjennom Stillheten en Natt, 1960, translated by Robert Hedin)
Stein Mehren turned 70 on 16th May 2005. From his debut in 1960 he has written several books – essays, novels, plays – but predominantly poems. He has also made a name for himself as a painter. New Paintings, Early Poems contains poems from the first part of his writing career and reproductions of more recent paintings.
In the epilogue, Mehren says: "I am an old poet and a young painter. This book contains early poems and the majority have not been in a collection before. Newer paintings from my later years cast light on them... I could have rounded the book off with a note about the relationship between poetry and painting as I do in catalogues for my nine separate exhibitions, but adding an another interpretative dimension to the paintings and poems would bear witness to a voracious appetite for self-commentary, which would be unseemly... The paintings and poems – will have to speak for themselves."
Stein Mehren: Biography and bibliography
First published: 2005, Aschehoug Fiction
