By turns surreal, political, folkloric, and domestic, Shortening the Candle’s Wick is a window into the imaginative world of a poetic relationship. For more than 40 years, husband and wife Andres Ehin and Ly Seppel lived together in Estonia writing poetry. Ehin’s style is that of the surrealist—“a connector of the unconnectable”—while Seppel is a poet of the fleeting moment, the glance of language across it. Translator Ilmar Lehtpere has compiled a selection of translations in the form of a poetic dialogue between husband and wife, incorporating larger discussions of poet and language, nation, and self.