Rolf Gjedsted
After reading two of his poetry books which I bought from used book stores in Denmark, Rolf Gjedsted and I met at his home in Nyhavn, Copenhagen in May of 2022. After a tour of the restaurant on the first floor of his building, which was decorated with Rolf’s large, colorful abstract paintings, we sat by the canal among the tourists and cafes. I shared a few sample translations I had done, and he gave me a bag with copies of what he thought were his ten best poetry collections, all out of print. We shared similar interests in music, eastern philosophy, and poetry, and we also had a dear common acquaintance in the recently deceased Danish national poet, Benny Andersen. We discussed other Danish writers, and he revealed to me what he had learned was the secret to writing poetry: musicality. Rolf was also a translator, bringing into Danish the poetry of Beaudelaire, Poe, and Rimbaud. It was a shock to learn that just two months after meeting him, Rolf died suddenly in July, 2022.
Excerpt from Sundy with Scorpions
(unpublished manuscript)
Watering in the Mountains
If there have been seasons,
it was a long time ago.
The sun has ambushed the landscape
and burned away nearly all life.
For several years no real rain has fallen,
and the bit of moisture the night generates
is only just enough for
cactus, broom, and rosemary
to still flower in May.
If you water the trees superficially
here in this dry terrain,
the roots naturally seek upward
making a bad situation worse
for the grapevine and the orange tree.
If you water deeply
the water pulls the rootnet downward.
But then you have to use so much
of the scarce water
that there is hardly enough for yourself.
Therefore the mountain farmer’s eternal dilemma
according to the seasons and the ways of water,
is whether to provide for his crops
or to carry water for himself.
And his frustration and his impossible choice:
that the omission of the one,
will lead to thirst and hunger
for them both.
by Rolf Gjedsted, 1986 “Vanding i bjergene”
Translated from the Danish by Michael Favala Goldman
First published in English in The Sycamore Review
