Benny Andersen: 'Kierkegaard på cykel'

 Kierkegaard on a bicycle

Some things got lost over time

a lot was scarcely worth remembering

but I remember as if only yesterday

although it’s more than a week ago

Søren Kierkegaard coming on a bicycle

wait a moment it must be about

150 years ago

and I hadn’t even been born then

but never mind

he comes bicycling down Hjortekær Road

and I’m on my way up

so we got off and had a little chat

now someone’s sure to object

that the bicycle hadn’t been invented then

but such things don’t faze great minds

and he could be a bit absent-minded at times

Slightly out of breath he set to work illustrating

what he meant by the term repetition

which he spelt with a capital, i.e. Repetition:

The constantly repeated use of the pedals

caused the wheels to turn round

it was so to speak repetition

that made the wheels go round

and increased the desire to see new places

or to revive well-known places

But the most brilliant thing about the bicycle was

that you could do both at the same time

you sat in the same place

and with the aid of repetition could

move this place with you

in that way you could cycle from inner Copenhagen

all the way out to Hjortekær and Dyrehaven

and experience lots of marvellous places en route

without budging from the place where you were

Yes and that was long before there was TV

Then he nipped off again on his bicycle

I’ve never seen him since 

and not at all before

possibly never

but I remember that about repetition

and you can say a lot about Kierkegaard

but the man damned well knew what he was talking about