Shortening the Candle's Wick by Andres Ehin and Ly Seppel, trans. by Ilmar Lehtpere

By turns surreal, political, folkloric and rootedly domestic, Shortening the Candle’s Wick is a window into the imaginative world of a poetic relationship. 

For over forty years, husband and wife Andres Ehin and Ly Seppel lived together in Estonia writing poetry. Ehin’s style is that of the surrealist – “a connector of the unconnectable” – whilst Seppel is a poet of the fleeting moment, the glance of language across it.

Translator Ilmar Lehtpere has compiled a selection of translations in the form of a poetic dialogue between husband and wife, incorporating larger discussions of poet and language, nation and self.