Farming Dreams by Knud Sørensen
Translated from Danish by Michael Goldman
Published by Spuyten Duyvil Press 2016
ISBN 978-1-944682-13-2
70 pages
Illuminates the farmer’s way of life and the decline of small farming. By one of Denmark’s foremost rural authors. Poetry.
“Knud Sørensen’s poems investigate and lament the end of the Danish farmer’s way of life, brilliantly capturing its intertwined beauty and sadness. These poems have a universality that speaks to the disappearance of the family farm, not just in Denmark but in America and across the globe. All thanks to Michael Goldman for such vivid translations that allow a new audience to see ‘Denmark like a green dream about eternity.’”
-Denton Loving, author of Crimes Against Birds, editor of drafthorse literary journal
“Knud Sørensen’s formidable literary output bears a vulnerability, an embracing, gentle warmth, and a penetrating apprehension of emotional depth in commonplace events. May his work take flight and find readers around the globe.”
– Dorthe Nors, Danish author
“…Sørensen is one of the best Danish poets.”
– Martin Gregersen, Kristelig Dagblad, Sept. 2015
READ A POEM FROM THE BOOK:
The summer
The landscape of summer
shall be populated
with cows: waddling
pedestrians, four-legged
marvels, motivated
by insatiability and an ever-
wakeful curiosity.
Summer days
shall be filled
with productive laziness
with instinctive heavy cud-
chewing. Summer sounds
shall be the dull thuds
of ruminated nature
and summer’s joy
the broad meaty backs
that one’s hand likes
to give gentle pats
one quiet evening while the dew
starts to settle.
By Knud Sørensen “Sommeren” ©1976
Translated by Michael Favala Goldman
