The Veins of the Heart to the Pinnacle of the Mind

This volume includes the Greenlandic originals and English translations of selections from Aqqaluk Lynge's poetic output over the course of the last thirty-five years. It launches the International Polar Institute Press's bilingual Greenlandic Literature in Translation series, the first cultural project arising from the US-Greenland Joint Declaration signed in 1993. This series examines the decline of ritual and physical traditions as Greenlanders adapt to modern technology while struggling to retain their cultural heritage in the midst of challenges posed by modern commerce and climate change. It reproduces for the first time in English the voices of a distinct and proud people in poetry, fiction, and performance/mixed media. Speaking from the universal heart and mind, Lynge's powerful verses rely on strong images drawn from traditional life, the people, and the geography of his beloved Greenland as it moves toward sovereignty.