Johannes Jensen won the 1944 Nobel Literature Prize for the fertility of his poetic imagination, intellectual curiosity and creative mind. We don’t post poetry. However this prose poem, which is the title story in a book containing translations of fourteen of Jensen’s works, is a wonderful example of these attributes. It paints a powerful word-picture of Scandinavian rye fields through the seasons and the magic (and contribution to population growth!) of Danish “light nights”, and then takes readers on a “night flight” with the author across the countryside. Themes include the beauty and bounty of nature, dreams, artistic inspiration.

Considered a “myth” because of its message about the consequences of recklessness, this story by Johannes Jensen, follows a young couple on a motorcycle as they speed across the Danish island of Funen to catch a car-ferry. The rider feels invincible and the trip becomes not just a race against time, but also a race against a car heading in the same direction that refuses to let them pass. As the motorcycle pulls alongside, the couple learn that you can’t cheat death. They do catch a ferry, but not the one they had intended. Themes include needless risk-taking, hubris, mortality.