Jens Fink-Jensen was born 1956 in Copenhagen, Denmark. His first short stories, essays and poems were published in various newspapers and literary journals from 1975. He earned a degree in architecture in 1986 from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen and a further education in multimedia design from the same Academy in 1997.
Fink-Jensen published his first collection of poems, titled Verden i et øje (The World in an Eye), in 1981. He followed with two more books of poetry, and then in 1986, he published the collection of short stories Bæsterne (The Beasts). He has also written three children’s book in collaboration with the Danish illustrator Mads Stage: Jonas og konkylien (Jonas and the Conch Shell), Jonas og himmelteltet (Jonas and the Sky Tent) and Jonas og engletræet (Jonas and the Angel Tree). Jens Fink-Jensen has altogether written seven books of poetry. In 2008 his travel book The West Coast of Europe – a photo travel from Skagen to Gibraltar was published, depicting the 10,000 kilometres long coastline connecting his own native country, Denmark, with Gibraltar at the gate to the Mediterranean Sea.
Jens Fink-Jensen has made many travels to the coast areas around the Mediterranean Sea: France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey depicting the Mediterranean World through poetry and photography.
Jens Fink-Jensen performs at various venues such as music and literature festivals, high schools and libraries with his multimedia performance which combines poetry readings with music (synthesizer and saxophone) and picture shows.
Jens Fink-Jensen has had photo exhibitions in Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden: Images of Beijing, with portraits of people and places in the Chinese capital, distributed in Denmark by Amnesty International. Ships of the South, showing mostly small fishing-boats and related people and surroundings by the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Coast of Europe and Morocco (displayed at museums in Denmark, Norway and Sweden) and The West Coast of Europe – a photographic journey from Skagen to Gibraltar, since 2008 displayed in Denmark, France and The Netherlands.
In 1999, his collection of poems Nær afstanden (Near the Distance) was published in Arabic, translated by Jamal Jumá (Alwah publishers, Madrid). A few of the poems had previously been published in the daily “Al-Quds” (London, 1996) and the periodical “Nizwa” (Sultanate of Oman, 1999). Iranian born poet Sheema Kalbasi, now living in the U.S.A., has translated poems by Jens Fink-Jensen into English and Persian. Jens Fink-Jensen’s travel book The West Coast of Europe – a photographic journey from Skagen to Gibraltar was published in English in 2008. Chilean poet Omar Pérez Santiago has in 2009 translated poems by Jens Fink-Jensen into Spanish.
Official Website: www.jensfink.com
1
The sea has caught fire
Floating gold washing up on the beach
The sunshades stretching to cover this miracle
As best they can
Soon the sun will disappear in the waves
The fire will die out
And the gold will be found
In the dreams of thousands
2
The sea gnawing at the coast
Sand tumbling down the cliff
Encapsulated time atomised
Petrifaction broken
A glimpse of eternity
So short
That all I’ve time to say
Is
I’m here
Jens Fink-Jensen
© Translation by Sheema Kalbasi
The fisherman
Every single day
Since he was born
On an ancient coast
He has seen the ocean
As a silver tray
While the evening comes
The sun that cleaves
As a luminous orange
By a mountain top
As the storks fly away
And the fish surface
To kiss goodnight
Every single night
He has dreamt
About those images
As the moon sang silence
And the trees whispered
In darkness about the world
Every year he has lived
To pass on
These images
To have someone
With whom to share these
Infinite moments.
Jens Fink-Jensen
© Translation by Anne-Mette Damon
Published with the permission of Jens Fink-Jensen