Erik Knudsen: 'Min Lundbye rus'

J. Th. Lundbye (1818-48). Danish painter, drawer and graphic artist

My Lundbye ecstasy

I was not myself, I was Lundbye,

sat securely on a child’s stool in mid-nature,

happily alone in the open landscape.

The low-lying plain, the sky’s oceans

were noted down and on the paper filled

as little as the shadow of a clover leaf.

And I gained eyes. Everything flew open like doors –

I drew away and wrote, I did not want

the dream to fly away. I was stubborn.

I held on tight. There I sat, twelve years old

with the world like a dog at my feet.