ZKV 116: 'At digte'

 

ZKV 116

AT DIGTE

 

On page 68 of his collection Heartland, the Danish poet Klaus Høeck wrote this:

 

          at digte betyder

     at tætne (altså ikke

bare en tilfældig

 

         homonymi) men

     virkeligheden fugen

imellem sproget og

 

         verden digtning er

     værket der ud

     fylder huller og

 

sprækker som når skibsskrog

         kalfatres og stryges

     med tjære og beg

 

 

          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

 

 

Strictly speaking, 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.

 

And English, alas has no one word to match the Danish gendigte – which covers to re-caulk and to re-create a poem in a different language. In other words, to make a vessel as seaworthy as the original.