{"id":156347,"date":"2021-12-09T12:24:12","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T17:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=156347"},"modified":"2021-12-09T12:24:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T17:24:12","slug":"two-self-portraits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Self-Portraits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Illustration by Na Kim<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Self-Portrait 1 <\/strong><\/p>\n

I cannot:
\ncook
\npull off a hat
\nentertain
\nwear jewelry
\narrange flowers
\nremember appointments
\nsend thank-you cards
\nleave the right tip
\nkeep a man
\nfeign interest
\nat parent-teacher conferences.<\/p>\n

I cannot
\nstop:
\nsmoking
\ndrinking
\neating chocolate
\nstealing umbrellas
\noversleeping
\nforgetting to remember
\nbirthdays
\nand to clean my nails.
\nTelling people what they want to hear
\nspilling secrets
\nloving
\nstrange places
\nand psychopaths.<\/p>\n

I can:
\nbe alone
\ndo the dishes
\nread books
\nform sentences
\nlisten
\nand be happy
\nwithout feeling guilty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Self-Portrait 5 <\/strong><\/p>\n

I once stood
\nand waited
\nby BT-Centralen
\nfor someone who never came.
\nI loved him.
\nMy youth
\nfell away
\nin flakes.
\nI pretended to be
\neagerly reading
\nthe news ticker and
\npersonally affected
\nby the report of
\nGustaf Munch-Petersen\u2019s death
\nin the Spanish Civil War.<\/p>\n

Why
\ndidn\u2019t he come?
\nI shouldn\u2019t have
\ndenied him
\nmy pesky virginity.
\nMy friend told me
\nyou can tell
\nby a girl\u2019s eyes
\nwhether she still has it
\nor not.<\/p>\n

An old lady
\nstood next me
\nunder an open umbrella.
\nThe skin on her neck
\nlooked like a turkey\u2019s.
\nI wished I
\nwere her
\nbecause she
\nwas nearer death.<\/p>\n

All my life I\u2019ll remember
\nher face
\nall my life I\u2019ll remember
\nGustaf Munch-Petersen\u2019s
\nname
\nand envy him his fate.<\/p>\n

In the bookstore\u2019s window stood
\nAnd Now We Await a Ship
\n<\/em>by Marcus Lauesen.
\nI never got around to reading it
\nI think of it
\nreluctantly
\neach time I pass by
\nBT-Centralen
\nwhere
\na girl in a miniskirt
\nis pretending to be
\ndeeply engrossed
\nin the news ticker\u2019s flickering
\nwords about Vietnam
\nBiafra and the student protests.<\/p>\n

For a moment she looks
\nat me
\nand envies me
\nbecause I am nearer death.
\nShe will never forget
\nmy face.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Translated from the Danish by Jennifer Russell and Sophia Hersi Smith.<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Tove Ditlevsen (1917\u20141976) was a Danish poet, fiction writer, and essayist. Four more of her poems, about divorce, appear in the Winter issue of <\/em>The Paris Review, no. 238<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Jennifer Russell and Sophia Hersi Smith live in Copenhagen. Their cotranslation of <\/em>All the Birds in the Sky by Rakel Haslund-Gjerrild was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation\u2019s 2020 Translation Prize. They are currently translating <\/em>My Work by Olga Ravn.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In these poems, the author of The Copenhagen Trilogy considers her strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[498],"tags":[17007,2186,2111,8963,1447,20946,227,14391,9909],"class_list":["post-156347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-copenhagen","tag-death","tag-love","tag-parenting","tag-poet","tag-self-image","tag-self-portrait","tag-virginity","tag-youth"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Self-Portraits by Tove Ditlevsen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 9, 2021 \u2013 In these poems, the author of The Copenhagen Trilogy considers her strengths and weaknesses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Self-Portraits by Tove Ditlevsen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 9, 2021 \u2013 In these poems, the author of The Copenhagen Trilogy considers her strengths and weaknesses.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-09T17:24:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tove Ditlevsen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tove Ditlevsen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tove Ditlevsen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/72518e28f78bd4501e00d3afecdcaed7\"},\"headline\":\"Two Self-Portraits\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-09T17:24:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/\"},\"wordCount\":386,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo-1024x614.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Copenhagen\",\"death\",\"love\",\"parenting\",\"poet\",\"self-image\",\"self-portrait\",\"virginity\",\"youth\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Poetry\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/\",\"name\":\"Two Self-Portraits by Tove Ditlevsen\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo-1024x614.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-09T17:24:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 9, 2021 \u2013 In these poems, the author of The Copenhagen Trilogy considers her strengths and weaknesses.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo.jpg\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Two Self-Portraits\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/72518e28f78bd4501e00d3afecdcaed7\",\"name\":\"Tove Ditlevsen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3183def6da4699aaed2154d8e54c437829f4685e8c1c6e1c034a4f370e75ef93?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3183def6da4699aaed2154d8e54c437829f4685e8c1c6e1c034a4f370e75ef93?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tove Ditlevsen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/tditlevsen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Two Self-Portraits by Tove Ditlevsen","description":"December 9, 2021 \u2013 In these poems, the author of The Copenhagen Trilogy considers her strengths and weaknesses.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Two Self-Portraits by Tove Ditlevsen","og_description":"December 9, 2021 \u2013 In these poems, the author of The Copenhagen Trilogy considers her strengths and weaknesses.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2021-12-09T17:24:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1500,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tove Ditlevsen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tove Ditlevsen","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/"},"author":{"name":"Tove Ditlevsen","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/72518e28f78bd4501e00d3afecdcaed7"},"headline":"Two Self-Portraits","datePublished":"2021-12-09T17:24:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/"},"wordCount":386,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo-1024x614.jpg","keywords":["Copenhagen","death","love","parenting","poet","self-image","self-portrait","virginity","youth"],"articleSection":["Poetry"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/","name":"Two Self-Portraits by Tove Ditlevsen","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo-1024x614.jpg","datePublished":"2021-12-09T17:24:12+00:00","description":"December 9, 2021 \u2013 In these poems, the author of The Copenhagen Trilogy considers her strengths and weaknesses.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tpr_ditlevsen_illo.jpg","width":1500,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/09\/two-self-portraits\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Two Self-Portraits"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/72518e28f78bd4501e00d3afecdcaed7","name":"Tove Ditlevsen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3183def6da4699aaed2154d8e54c437829f4685e8c1c6e1c034a4f370e75ef93?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3183def6da4699aaed2154d8e54c437829f4685e8c1c6e1c034a4f370e75ef93?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tove Ditlevsen"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/tditlevsen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156347"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156393,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156347\/revisions\/156393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}