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The poetic presence of future perfect.

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* Johannes V. Jensen. Samlede Digte. Bind 1 (Tekster) and Bind 2 (Kommentarer). Udgivet af Anders Thyrring Andersen, Erik M. Christensen, Per Dahl og Aage Jorgensen. Kobenhavn: Gyldendal, 2006. Pp 682 and 452, respectively.

I.

JOHANNES V. JENSEN (1873-1950) is without doubt one of the greatest names in Scandinavian literature. His 1944 Nobel Prize, and the fact that readers of the leading Danish dailies Politiken and Berlingske Tidende in 1999 voted his early work of lyric prose fiction, Kongens Fald (1900-1901; The Fall of the King), the most important Danish novel of the twentieth century, are merely two indications of his superior status. Even so, for more than half a century after Jensen's death no scholarly edition of his collected works, or for that matter of his total output within any of the many genres he appropriated, saw publication.

This sin of omission was rectified with a vengeance when the Samlede Digte [Collected Lyric Poems] under review here was issued in 2006. The edition is a model in most every respect, and it sets a gold standard for future critical editions of Jensen's oeuvres or any (other) subdivision thereof, were such undertakings to be contemplated. The editors of Samlede Digte have acquitted themselves admirably.

That said, the very quality of their work enables an undistracted reappraisal of Jensen as a lyric poet, and in light of this renewed assessment, invokes yet a second look at the editorial choices which the volumes at hand have bestowed upon his lyric production. Is Jensen the poet worthy of the editorial attention he has received, and is this attention, given the degree of his possible worthiness, justified wholly or in part?

II.

The poems reprinted in Samlede Digte's volume 1 (SD1), totaling some 275 texts, include the entire contents of all the first editions of Jensen's published collections (including all translations into Danish incorporated in these collections, but none of the original tables of contents); also included are his other published poems as well as every unpublished poem known to have come from his hand. In addition, all illustrations contained in the published first editions along with selected illustrations from other printed sources have been competently reissued. Poems (re) appearing in more than one of the published collections are reprinted only in the context of the earliest one.

In volume two of Samlede Digte (SD2), which opens with a useful chronology of Jensen's life and work, the reader will find extensive commentaries to, but at least in principal no interpretations of, every text represented in volume one. An informative introduction to this commentary volume firstly traces Jensen's relation to his publishers, the history of his published poetry, and the principal facts about the individual collections; secondly, it accounts for the editorial principles and methodology of Samlede Digte.

Thus, under Commentaries to each poem information is given about difficult words and passages, about illustrators, if any, and about composers who have set a given poem to music. All known manuscripts (almost exclusively print manuscripts, available only for some 2/3 of the published poems) are listed, and differences between various printed text versions are accounted for. Whenever the information needed to illuminate a certain text falls outside these standard categories, such circumstances are duly noted in special remarks by the editors.

Finally, the volume is efficiently illustrated with a variety of Jenseniana throughout, and it ends with a section of reproduced color illustrations related to specific poems and two instructive appendixes. One of the latter renders--both in facsimile and printed transcription--a few texts in manuscript forms significantly different from Jensen's printed versions, while the other one reproduces prose equivalents of major lyric poems.

Indexes of titles and first lines of all poems are included in both volumes; yet, only those in volume two make reference to both volumes, and volume two's bibliographical data and index of personal names pertain exclusively to this volume. The arrangement is altogether quite practical and well suited for cross-references between the volumes at hand. From volume two's introduction to Jenseffs lyric production emerge some general features relevant to the entire editorial work. Quite a number of poems appear in various formats--with all variations described in the commentary--but most alternations occur after the appearance of the first printed version of a...

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