Stein Mehren (1935-2017), though little known in this country, was a popular and awardwinning poet, playwright and essayist in Norway. To the Outermost Stars (Arc Publications, £10.99) is a selection of 50 of his finest poems, most about love, translated by Agnes Scott Langeland. Mehren, who observed that 'the best love poetry is as much about life as about love' , writes about Tristan and Isolde, Hero and Leander, Hamlet and Ophelia, as well as of himself. 'But with you I dare to lose myself and meet / another who sees me, as the one I am / and as the one I could become.'

The whole day I had been fishing, pulling up / living tongues of fire through the icy cold depths

- Stein Mehren