Lyn Hejinian with translator Abigail Lang in Paris. Photo by Mia You.
The first thought I had when I heard that Lyn Hejinian had died was, She’s going to think that’s so weird!And then my brain seized up, and broke into three parts: one part was scientific and self-castigating, thinking, She died, that’s a fact, and she’s not going to think anything is anything anymore. A second part of me, a more aesthetic part, focused on what I feel in my emotions and my body, doubled down on this felt knowledge that Lyn would think her own death was weird, since, obviously, she wasn’t really dead.