Background
Jensen was a bit of a nomadic spirit in an age of expanding empires. He went from a medical student to a foreign journalist to a historian, poet, and novelist. After a hiatus during the second world war, the Nobel committee made him its first new recipient in five years: “for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style”
Works
The day exposes mercilessly
The cold rails and all the black mud,
The waiting room with the chocolate vending machine,
Orange peel, cigar stubs and burnt-out matches,
The day gapes through with spewing gutters
And an eternal grid of rain,
Rain I say from heaven to earth.How deaf and irremovable the world is,
How devoid of talent its creator!
The day dawned so mournfully,
But look – the rainfall gleams now!Do you grudge the day its right to fight?
After all, it is light now. And the smell of soil
sets in between the rusty iron struts of the platform
Mixed with the rank breath of the rain-dust –
A hint of spring.
Isn’t that consoling?
They Caught the Ferry
Message
It was a little hard to track down Jensen’s work (even in Danish it wasn’t easy to come by). If I were to judge by my extremely limited sample, I might say that he focuses on the ebb and flow of emotion is a universal experience. At times he’s bubbling over with hope, at times he’s mindful only of loss. The characters in his short film are confident, crazed, and terrified in short order. He seems to know that each emotion will only last until the net one comes.
Position: #3 Left Back
Like a daydreaming kid with equal turns doom and hope, I can see Jensen running down the flank thinking about a possible attack, only to realize he’s out of position and go screaming back the other way, and yet…being totally happy and natural doing it. I may never write like him…but that’s exactly how I played soccer during my youth, so I appreciate it.
As ever we’d love to hear from people with other thoughts. I see you clicking like, why not write the words “I liked it” below. Or give me a link to more of Jensen’s work so I can get a fuller understanding of him.
MacKenzie's Boot Room 