# Grook

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{{short description|Form of poetry created by Danish polymath Piet Hein}}

A '''grook''' ({{langx|da|'''gruk'''}}) is a form of short aphoristic [poem](/source/poetry) or rhyming [aphorism](/source/aphorism) created by the Danish poet, designer, inventor, and scientist [Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)). He wrote over 7,000 of them from 1939 until his death in 1996, mostly in Danish{{refn|This webpage<ref name="Database of Gruks">{{Cite web
|url=https://piethein.dk/gruk-database1/
|title= Database of Gruks
|publisher=piethein.com
|date=
|accessdate=}}</ref> is a database of over 7,000
gruks by Piet Hein, in Danish. The page says (in Danish) that you can freely search it and have them emailed directly to you.}}. The grooks are multi-faceted and characterized by [irony](/source/irony), [paradox](/source/paradox), brevity, precise use of language,  rhythm and [rhyme](/source/rhyme), and an often [satiric](/source/Satire) nature. Many of the grooks have an accompanying line drawing, which provides additional meaning.

Some say that the name "''gruk''" is short for "'''''gr'''in & s'''uk'''''" ({{lit|laugh & sigh}}), but Piet Hein said he felt that the word had come out of thin air.{{cn|date=August 2024}} The contemporary "''Hunden Grog''" ("Grog the Dog") stories by fellow cartoonist [Storm P.](/source/Storm_P.) have, in public opinion, been regarded as an inspiration.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

==Grooks as passive resistance==
Piet Hein was president of the Anti-Nazi Union when the Germans invaded Denmark in 1940.{{refn|A long article in Life Magazine<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hicks |first=Jim 
|title=A Poet with a Slide Rule: Piet Hein Bestrides Art and Science 
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA55 
|magazine= Life |volume=51 |issue=16 |date=14 October 1966 |pages=55–66 
|issn=0024-3019}}</ref> talks about Piet Hein's becoming a passive resister beginning
on page 63. It corroborates what is said here. At the time, he thought
there would be 4-5 grooks, not the ~7,000 that he later wrote.}} He became an underground passive resister. He found a way to encourage resistance
through the use of poems, which he called "gruks" ("grooks" in English),
and began publishing them in the daily newspaper "''[Politiken](/source/Politiken)''" under the pseudonym
"Kumbel Kumbell"{{refn| "Here is the reason why: Piet is the Dutch form of the name Peter or Petrus, which means rock, stone, and Hein is a way of spelling 'hen', the old Danish word for a whetstone. 'Kumbel', or 'kumbl' as it strictly speaking should be written, also means stone, though more a grave monument. In other words, Piet Hein, or Stone Stone can, in a way, be translated by Kumbel Kumbel. He originally wrote the second word with two Ls, also later the signature became just Kumbel – the name he is at least as well known by as his own."<ref>[http://www.piethein.com/usr/piethein/HomepagUK.nsf/webdocs/2e8962af9e1fffeac1256c860039c7eb?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=1 piethein.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100804202919/http://www.piethein.com/usr/piethein/HomepagUK.nsf/webdocs/2e8962af9e1fffeac1256c860039c7eb?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=1 |date=4 August 2010 }}</ref>}}.

==Grooks in English==
Beginning in the 1960s, seven volumes of English translations of 53 grooks each (all translated by [Jens Arup](/source/Jens_Arup)) were published and became popular{{cn|date=August 2024}} in the U.S. [counterculture](/source/counterculture) of the time:
* ''Grooks'' (1966)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks |year=1966 |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0262580076 |url=https://archive.org/details/grooksbypiethein0000piet}}</ref>
* ''Grooks 2'' (1968)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks 2 |year=1968 |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-8741810942}}</ref>
* ''Grooks 3'' (1970)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks 3 |year=1970 |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0773610040}}</ref>
* ''Grooks 4'' (1972)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks 4 |year=1972 |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0385006590 |url=https://archive.org/details/grooks40000hein}}</ref>
* ''Grooks 5'' (1973)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks 5 |year=1973 |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0385029681 |url=https://archive.org/details/grooks00hein}}</ref>
* ''Grooks VI'' (1978)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks VI |year=1978 |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Borgen's Pocketbooks |isbn=978-8741846811}}</ref>
* ''Grooks VII'' (1984)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks VII |year=1984 |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Borgen's Pocketbooks |isbn=978-8741871639}}</ref>

{{As of|2024}}, Piet Hein and/or his estate have also published the following books of grooks:<ref name="PH.com">{{cite web |url=https://piethein.com/shop/34-books-in-other-language/ |title=Books in English |website=PietHein.com |accessdate=2024-08-05}}</ref>

* ''Collected Grooks I'' (2002)<ref>{{cite book |title=Collected Grooks I |year=2002 |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |editor=Hugo Piet Hein |publisher=Borgen |edition=2nd |isbn=87-21-01859-6}}</ref>
* ''Collected Grooks II'' (2002)<ref>{{cite book |title=Collected Grooks II |year=2002 |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |editor=Hugo Piet Hein |publisher=Borgen |edition=2nd |isbn=87-21-01861-8}}</ref>
* ''Runaway Runes: Short Grooks I''<ref>{{cite book |title=Runaway Runes: Short Grooks I |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |editor=Jens Arup |publisher=Borgen |isbn=87-418-2620-5}}</ref>
* ''Viking Vistas: Short Grooks II''<ref>{{cite book |title=Viking Vistas: Short Grooks II |author=[Piet Hein](/source/Piet_Hein_(scientist)) |editor=Jens Arup |publisher=Borgen |isbn=87-418-5639-2}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite magazine |last=Hicks |first=Jim |title=A Poet with a Slide Rule: Piet Hein Bestrides Art and Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA55 |magazine= Life |volume=51 |issue=16 |date=14 October 1966 |pages=55–66 |issn=0024-3019}}
*[http://www.archimedes-lab.org/grooks.html Grooks – Leptonica]
*[http://www.leptonica.com/cachedpages/grooks/grooks.html Grooks]
*[http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~thorn/grooks.html Grooks in English by Piet Hein]
*[http://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/best/grook Poetry Soup- Grook poems]

Category:Genres of poetry
Category:Culture of Denmark

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Grook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grook) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grook?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.