Liv Thastum: »åben die erda«

Jammer Bay is located in northern Denmark, in Jutland. Rising from its coastline is the Bulbjeg—a limestone formation whose lower layers are 65 million years old. It is there that Liv Thastum begins her poetry debut, *åben die erda*. “Who drew us here?” asks the poetic voice in the first poem, thereby setting a central theme: Who are we? Where do we come from? “Every line—this one here and that one there—every line in the rock / bears witness to several generations. One layer German. One layer Danish. And / I, with my languages. Always murmuring, always in motion.” Origin, linguistic space, and borders are three defining themes that Thastum explores in her poems. This is done not only through linguistic play in German and Danish but also extends to the typographic design. Salon host Matthias Vogel speaks with Liv Thastum about writing in and between languages.