Jellyfish
- Jellyfish
The ocean is full of horrible jellyfish. They rule the ocean as people rule the earth. Jellyfish are softer than people but in their own element people are softer than jellyfish. You can see that when they die. Jellyfish dry up on the beach and vanish. People first get hard, then soft, they take a long time to vanish and with their bones take revenge on those who forgot to close their eyes with a kiss. They grin at us with their bared teeth. People must transform themselves into iron to be able to reach each other’s hearts. They love the black earth, which eats hearts, the black earth, which loves the white bones. I love the white beaches where the jellyfish vanish into the white sand as imperceptibly as the water itself and the sandpiper’s tones no more than the ocean waves let themselves happen again. [End Page 63]
Henrik Nordbrandt has published more than thirty-five books, primarily collections of poetry, but also essays, a novel, a memoir, a children’s book, and a Turkish cookbook. In 2000, Nordbrandt was awarded the Nordic Council Literary Prize for his collection Dream Bridges. English translations of his poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, New Letters, the Literary Review, Mid-American Review, and elsewhere.
Thomas E. Kennedy’s translations of Danish poets have appeared widely in American literary journals such as American Poetry Review, the Literary Review, New Letters, Mid-American Review, and many others. His most recent publications include the novels of the Copenhagen Quartet—the first two of which are being published worldwide by Bloomsbury USA and UK in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
