When We Leave Each Other

"Henrik Nordbrandt's poems pour out as cold, clear, and mineral-tanged as spring water. . . . Nordbrandt is a master, masterfully reborn in English. This is a book of signal beauty and mystery."—Rosanna Warren

Although most of his life has been spent abroad in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, Henrik Nordbrandt has simultaneously and undeniably emerged, next to Inger Christensen, as one of Denmark's very best contemporary poets. If it was Paul Celan who first claimed that poetry was "a message in a bottle, sent out in the—not always greatly hopeful—belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps," it is nevertheless Nordbrandt's unusually intimate poems that enact this unforgettably, as well as his persistent subjects: the joys and strangeness of travel, the tragicomic absurdity of our attempts to make sense of the world, and above all, the sweetness and ache of human love. Highlighting his entire career, the poems in When We Leave Each Other include a generous selection of recent and never-before-translated work into English that is certain to establish Nordbrandt as an essential contemporary lyric poet for American readers.

Henrik Nordbrandt, one of Denmark's foremost poets, has published over 30 books, including poetry, essays, translations, a novel, and a cookbook. In 2000, he was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Living alternately in Turkey, Italy, and Greece, his writing has gained a unique perspective.

Patrick Phillips is a poet, professor, and translator. He was a Guggenheim Fellow and has received the Sjöberg Prize and the Translation Prize of the American-Scandinavian Foundation. He teaches writing at Drew University.