“Hunger” by Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) was a prolific Norwegian writer of novels, plays, short stories, novellas, essays, non-fiction, and poetry. He was awarded the Novel Prize for Literature in 1920. He’s influenced writers ranging from Isaac Bashevis Singer and Thomas Mann to Arthur Koestler and Charles Bukowski. H.G. Wells was also a fan. 

His first novel, entitled Hunger (or Sult in Norwegian), was published in 1890, and it brought him wide acclaim. A few sections of it had been previously published in a Danish magazine in 1888. It’s the story of a struggling young writer living in Christiana (now Oslo). Newspapers and magazine editors show little interest in his work, he hasn’t paid his landlady for his attic garret room in weeks, and he’s down to pawning his waistband and coat buttons to be able to buy something to eat.

 

We follow the writer through his daily, sometimes hourly, trials and tribulations. His clothes look increasingly worn. He’s lost considerable weight. He’s consistently conscious of eating and trying to write. He’s often his own worst enemy, and he’s constantly sidetracked by a person he meets on the street, a new thought, or a slight change in the weather. He pawns his waistband only to realize that his last pencil is still in a pocket. He falls in love even though he’s unable to even think of supporting a wife and family. 

 

Knut Hamsun in 1890

The novel, or actually the short novel, is one of intense self-awareness. Although it was published 15 years before, it reminded me of the opening of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. It’s not a difficult read, but it is a challenging read. Even with its occasional flashes of humor, Hunger is often depressing, the writer’s physical hunger only occasionally relieved by the sale of an article. 

 

The writer’s physical hunger serves as a metaphor for his desire to succeed as a writer. He hungers to be published (and support himself) as much as he hungers for food. His salvation will come with the decision and action of breaking into something entirely new and different.

 

Hamsun was a popular writer in Norway until 1940, when the Nazis invaded and conquered the country. He openly and publicly welcomed the invasion, meeting with a number of high officials including Adolf Hitler. After Germany’s defeat, Hamsun was arrested for treason and collaboration, tried, and sentenced to prison. Because of his age, he spent time in a hospital. 

 

But all of that was in the future when he published Hunger. Some have called it the first novel of the 20^th century, because of its heavy emphasis on the mind of its protagonist – what in a few years would be called psychology. But it is a story of mostly lows, relieved by a few short-lived highs. 

Hunger

After Philippians 2:1-4

The hunger for glory

is an illness, a consumption

laying waste, a conceit

of soul, or heart, a desire

to be elevated. It is

the hunger never sated,

because glory is

an addiction, by nature

never enough, always

coupled with the need

for more, because more

is never enough,

an opiod of the soul

that requires more

and more, insatiable,

a craving overwhelming

that leads to paralysis.

Photograph by Jason Hogan via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Thirst, hunger

After Isaiah 55

A sound a word makes

a response a word evokes

the sounds and responses

of thirst and hunger and

the calls to the waters

the calls to the wine, the mind

the bread without crust

listen to the good

eat what is good

drink what is good

listen to the call

   to the immortal soul

drink the word

eat the word

drink and eat and be filled with the word

be satisfied, be restored

be replenished

Photograph by David Cohen via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The Moving Geography of Hunger

America, 1930s:
My mother tells a story
of waiting with her sisters
and brother for Mama
to come home from scrubbing
floors at the Bijou,
hoping for the simultaneous
arrival of something to eat,
perhaps day-old French bread,
welcome even without butter.

Africa, 2010s:
After the rains fail
and the tribes explode
and the soldiers come
and the machetes flash
in the sunlight,
the children stand in line
for their handful of grain,
not knowing if their handful
will be there tomorrow.
Some have heard of oranges.

America, 1930s:
The children stood in line for the
Thanksgiving baskets,
shrunken cornucopias, not
knowing what was worse, the
hunger or its shame.
My mother tells the story
of the arrival of Mama and
nothing else except
the sounds of empty
stomachs in the night.

This poem was written for One Stop Poetry’s photo challenge, One Shot Sunday. To see other poems on hunger and the homeless, please visit One Stop Poetry (and read the pomes posted by Leslie Moon and Pete Marshall).

The title of this poem is taken from a speech by Norman Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and father of the Green Revolution.