Butterfly Valley: A Requiem

Butterfly Valley: A Requiem is a 1991 book of poetry by the Danish writer Inger Christensen. It consists of 15 sonnets and is a so-called sonnet redoublé.

Publication

The book was published in Denmark in 1991 through Brøndum. In 2001, an English-language translation by Susanna Nied was released by the Dublin-based publisher Dedalus Press. It was published in the United States in 2004 through New Directions Publishing. Nied was a finalist for the 2005 American PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for the book; the motivation said that "the English text generates a motive force of formal presence. The reader doesn't merely acquire the ideas and the statements of the original, but does so by hearing a sustained and recognizable breath."
The work was chosen as one of 12 works of literature for the Danish Culture Canon. It has been set to music by two composers; first by Niels Rosing-Schow, then by Svend Nielsen. Both versions have been recorded by the Ars Nova Copenhagen choir; first Rosing-Schow's setting conducted by Bo Holten, then the later Nielsen setting conducted by Tamas Veto.