At the Edge of Night

"At the Edge of Night", a selection from four recent collections by Anise Koltz, brings the work of Luxembourg's best-known poet to the attention of the English-speaking literary world for the first time. Written in Koltz's prolific seventh decade, these brief poems - with their short, unpunctuated lines, clearly separated stanzas and powerful, direct language - are both personal and universal. This is not a gentle book. These poems pulse with anger, anger directed at the poet herself and her personal circumstances, and also at life, the world and God. Koltz originally wrote in German but switched to French which her translator, Anne-Marie Glasheen, believes gives her work some of its artistic power: this is poetry unlike any I have come across before. It feels utterly European - it speaks to the reader directly, jumping cultural barriers. It is poetry which is knife-sharp, clear and dazzling.