LEEVI LEHTOS BLOG. Lehto har lagt ut en forelesning han holdt under Charles Bernsteins seminar "Twentieth Century Poetry (but not in US)" ved University of Pennsylvania i februar, "My Finnish Poetries". De første to avsnitta:

I'd like to start by a short comment on this situation.

Come to think of it, I've never been asked to do exactly this in Finland - to talk about Finnish poetry in general (I'm more likely to be asked to talk about American poetry). Besides, if asked, I might not be willing to do it, at least not without reservations. Why? Because, fundamentally, I don't believe in coupling poetry and nationality together. In my view, the most fertile periods of "Finnish" poetry go together with the times when it's been the most open to foreign influences. That's not to say that I wouldn't cherish the Finnishness of our
poetry. I do. But to me, what, fundamentally, makes this "Finnishness" or "originality", are not the indigenous features of Finnish language or culture (although interesting as such), but the unique way of borrowing from others - something which, again, is never fully conditioned by internal factors.

På Pennsound: Lehto leser.