Monday 3 November 2014

A strange coincidence - 'digte' in danish. Poem by Klaus Høeck

         the danish word digte means
     both to write poems and
to caulk (i.e. is not just a chance

         homonymy) to caulk
     reality the pointing
between language and

         world digtning is
              the actual process of
     filling in holes and

cracks as when ship’s hulls
         are caulked and brushed
     with tar and pitch

1 comment:

John Irons said...

the etymology, strictly speaking, is that digte (to write poetry) comes from the late-latin dictare (to make, fashion), whereas digte (to seal, make tight) is probably a loan word from dutch (dichten - cf. dutch dicht doen, dicht bij). the cognate danish word is tætne, which indeed means to seal or make tight. and tight is the english cognate word.