I lie on the floor…I sink into a sweet melancholy and rhythmic waves of words stream through me again. I write them down on brown wrapping paper and conclude sorrowfully that the poems are still not good enough. ‘Children’s poems,’ said Mr Krogh… Then one day I write something that is different from anything I’ve written before, only I don’t know what the difference is. I write the following:
There burns a candle in the night, it burns for me alone, and if I blow at it, it flames up, and flames for me alone. But if you breathe softly and if you breathe quietly, the candle is suddenly more than bright and burns deep in my own breast, for you alone.
— Tove Ditlevsen, Youth: The Copenhagen Trilogy (FSG Originals (January 26, 2021)
Notes:
- Photo: Jake Noren via unsplash
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
Live & Learn 
Something so beautiful, deserves a beautiful comment – and yet, words fail me.
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I get it. With you.
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Love
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How rewarding that she found her true inner voice!
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She did!
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Sweet melancholy and rhythmic waves!! … Tove Ditlevsen, Youth: The Copenhagen Trilogy (FSG Originals (January 26, 2021).
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Well, when one writes automatically it mostly ends up in cliches, unfortunately.
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Tove Ditlevsen’s words to me I’d say speak to a depth some might not see…seems she is perhaps at a transition? If she is transitioning in mind and body from child to teenager…solitary thoughts, waves of emotions, finding her way intellectually, finding voice, reaching autonomy…
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Yes!
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Words that come from beyond words.
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Yes!
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Glorious and – as so often – worth the wait and quiet persistence. Love the Aldous Huxley inspiration too 🙂🌱
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