The following poem by Christian Yde Frostholm has been translated from the Danish by Karen Havelin.

 

I want to give you something as if it were flowers,

but specifically not flowers.

A rose that for anything in the world is not a rose.

 

I see you against the light in the next room

and I know that in a photograph you would have become

an impenetrable flat shadow

or the view behind you would have faded,

but from where I sit,

I can just discern and return

your smile in the darkness,

and still get a glance of the city behind you.

I see the world partly through your silhouette.

 

I like a view but I like to sit with my back turned to it.

I think that if you know who wrote that

you might also know

where I found the quotation.

It is Stein quoted by Toklas written by Stein.

If you know who the flowers are meant for

you might also know that a rose

sometimes is just a rose.

I guess there are flowers on all kind of graves,

but there are none in any of the images of

Gertrude and Alice’s grave that you can find

on for instance FindAGrave.com:

Gertrude’s grave in one entry, and Alice’s in another,

and only a single cyclamen

on Stein’s side of the stone. A stone is a stein

is a rock is a boulder is a pebble.

I think that you might already know

that this is Hemingway, and that he is angry.

I think that if it’s really

on Alice B. Toklas’ and Gertrude Stein’s grave

that the flowers are growing

in the photograph by Felix Gonzalez-Torres

“Untitled” (Alice B. Toklas’ and Gertrude Stein’s Grave, Paris), 1992,

then Felix Gonzalez-Torres has also seen the headstone,

on the front of which it reads Gertrude Stein, and no year,

and on the back of which it reads “Alice B. Toklas,

San Francisco April 30, 1877 (in English)

and: “Paris, 7 mars 1967” (in French).

And thus the stone is also a part of the picture

the Felix Gonzalez-Torres way

somewhere in the space between photograph and non-title.

All other images show the stone

fronted by an empty, almost parched spot

where the flowers were growing according to Gonzalez-Torres,

but no one mentions Alice,

or they show the back of the stone,

not mentioning Gertrude,

not in connection to the grave at least,

only in connection to the fact

that Alice B. Toklas was Gertrude Stein’s

secretary, housekeeper, confidante, muse, editor, critic

and, let us perhaps try to find an even more adequate word –

like a footnote

just like her death is a footnote to the death of Stein,

behind her back.

Gonzalez-Torres photographed the flowers

and the dark brown soil between the plants,

in what in most reproductions appears to be twilight.

“The hues are saturated and the overall effect

is anything but lugubrious. It is an homage

to love made in the time of death,

to a same-sex couple in a time

when the right to be that was

– as it still is –

under continuous assault…”,

Robert Storr writes in his article

“When This You See Remember Me”.

 

I will give you something, as if it were flowers,

but specifically not flowers,

but there is no other word.

I will give you flowers as if they were flowers.

 

*

Jeg vil give dig noget, som om det var blomster,

men præcis ikke blomster.

En rose, som for alt i verden ikke er en rose.

 

 

Jeg ser dig i modlyset i det tilstødende rum

og ved at du på et fotografi

enten ville være blevet en 
uigennemtrængelig flad skygge

eller at udsigten bag dig ville være blevet udvasket

men herfra hvor jeg sidder kan jeg præcis

ane og gengælde dit smil inde i mørket

og se byen bag dig i det samme blik.

Jeg ser verden delvist igennem din silhuet.

 

 

I like a view but I like to sit with my back turned to it.

Jeg tænker at hvis du ved hvem det er

så ved du måske også allerede

hvor jeg har hentet dette citat.

Det er Stein citeret af Toklas skrevet af Stein.

 

Hvis du ved hvem blomsterne er til

så ved du måske også at en rose

nogle gange bare er en rose.

 

Jeg tænker at der er blomster på alle slags grave

men at der ikke er nogen på de billeder af

Gertrude og Alice’s grav som findes

for eksempel på FindAGrave.com:

Gertrudes grav for sig og Alice’s for sig

og kun en enkelt cyclamen

på Steins side af stenen. A stone is a stein

is a rock is a boulder is a pebble.

Jeg tænker du måske allerede ved

det er Hemingway, og at han er vred.

 

Jeg tænker at hvis virkelig det er

på Alice B. Toklas’ og Gertrude Stein’s grav

blomsterne vokser på Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ billede

Untitled” (Alice B. Toklas’ and Gertrude Stein’s Grave, Paris), 1992,

så har Felix Gonzalez-Torres også set stenen

på hvis forside, der kun står Gertrude Stein og intet årstal,

og på hvis bagside der står: “Alice B. Toklas,

San Francisco April 30, 1877“ (på engelsk)

og: “Paris, 7 mars 1967” (på fransk).

Og så er stenen også med på billedet

the Felix Gonzalez-Torres way

et sted i mellemrummet mellem fotografi og ikke-titel.

Alle andre billeder viser stenen

med en bar, nærmest afsveden plet foran,

hvor blomsterne voksede ifølge Gonzalez-Torres,

men ingen nævner Alice,

eller også viser de stenens bagside

og nævner ikke Gertrude,

i al fald ikke i forbindelse med graven,

kun i forbindelse med

at Alice B. Toklas var Gertrude Steins’

 

sekretær, husholderske, fortrolige, muse, redaktør, kritiker

og, lad os nu bare prøve at finde et mere dækkende ord,

som en slags fodnote

ligesom hendes død er det til Steins død,

bag om ryggen.

 

Gonzalez-Torres fotograferer blomsterne

og den mørkebrune jord imellem planterne,

i et lys der i de fleste gengivelser

forekommer tusmørkeagtigt.

“The hues are saturated and the overall effect

is anything but lugubrious. It is an homage

to love made in the time of death,

to a same-sex couple in a time

when the right to be that was

– as it still is –

under continous assault…”

skriver Robert Storr i artiklen

“When This You See Remember Me”.

 

Jeg vil give dig noget, som om det var blomster,

men præcis ikke blomster,

men der findes ikke noget andet ord.

Jeg vil give dig blomster som om det var blomster.

CHRISTIAN YDE FROSTHOLM & KAREN HAVELIN