Flowers For Socrates

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

When the Germans invaded Denmark in April, 1940, Piet Hein (1905-1996) was a 34-year-old scientist and inventor, who had to decide between three responses: do nothing, flee to “neutral” Sweden — or join the Danish resistance movement. As he explained in 1968, “Sweden was out because I am not Swedish, but Danish. I could not remain at home because, if I had, every knock at the door would have sent shivers up my spine.
So, I joined the Resistance.”

His method of resisting was unique. He invented a new kind of poetry.

Hein called his poems Grooks (pronounced “gruk” in Danish), and wrote under the nom de plume Kumbel, “tombstone” in Old Norse. He outwitted the strict censorship set up by the Nazis by writing seemingly innocuous little poems with subtle double meanings, which were published in the Danish daily newspaper Politiken.

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CONSOLATION GROOK

Losing one glove
is certainly painful,
but nothing
compared to the pain,
of losing one,
throwing away the other,
and finding
the first one again.

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The Danes, looking for hope and encouragement during the occupation, saw what the censors missed. The gloves were metaphors: even if you’ve lost your freedom, don’t lose your self-respect by collaborating with the enemy, or you will never forgive yourself when your country is free again. The poem soon appeared as graffiti on walls all over Denmark.

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