The name of Peter Hain (1905-1996) is widely known not only in his homeland in Denmark, but throughout Scandinavia and in many English-speaking countries. Such popularity is not surprising: the 20th century is unlikely to count many people in whom a poet, novelist, essayist, artist, architect, mathematician and engineer-inventor coexisted happily and who, moreover, managed to behave talentedly in all these guises.

< p>The greatest fame for P. Hayne came from his short poems - grooks. It was for them that he was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times. P. Hein began writing them during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. The Gruks soon became a kind of underground literature: while remaining incomprehensible to the Germans, they gave the Danes the opportunity to talk to each other about what really worried them. This game of ambiguity continues in the books written after the war. The creator of cybernetics, N. Wiener, a great admirer of P. Hayne’s talent, especially highlighted this trait: “Piet Hayne is a great master of the epigram. It should be read at least on two levels - external and deeper. In both cases, they inspire me with admiration. What a wealth of significant thoughts are contained in them!

When P. Hayne worked at the famous Copenhagen Institute of Theoretical Physics, Niels Bohr chose him as his partner in “intellectual ping-pong.” This is not surprising: Hayne’s grooves, which are an aphorism pressed into several lines, eloquently testify not only to the wisdom and insight of their author, but also to his wit.

Many of P. Hayne’s lines have become sayings, catchphrases. They have become so firmly established that they in turn gave one critic the basis for the following aphorism: “A brilliant speaker is a person who can give a good speech without ever quoting Pete Hain.”

P. Hayne has published more than 40 books in English and Danish. About half of them are collections of grooks. Gruks were translated into many languages, including German, French, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Persian, Esperanto, of course, Scandinavian, etc. Their popularity was greatly facilitated by the author’s drawings illustrating each poem.

The texts included in this collection of translations are taken from English collections published in 1966-1986. in Copenhagen.

In conclusion, I would like to express my deep gratitude to N.V. Vdovichenko for her heartfelt participation and a number of subtle comments and constructive suggestions in preparing this selection of grooks for publication.

G. L. Wardenga