Tightly my heart is hidden in a narrow ravine,far away my heart is locatedon a distant island.White birds fly to and frowith the message that my heart lives.I know how it livesof coal and sandon sharp stones. I lay all day […]
Edith Södergran: My Future
A moment’s whimstole my futurebuilt on utter chance and accidents. Much more beautiful I shall build itas I thought it from the beginning.I shall build it on the firm groundwhich is called my will.I shall rise it on the tall columnswhich […]
Edith Södergran: The Princess
Every night the princess let herself be caressed.But the one who caresses merely satisfy his own hungerand her desire was a shy flower, a puzzled fairytale in the midst of reality.New caresses filled her heart with bitter-sweetnessand her body with […]
Edith Södergran: To Eros
Eros, you, the cruelest among gods,why did you lead me to the dark land?When girls grow upthey’re shut out from the lightand thrown into dark rooms.Did my soul not soar like a happy starbefore it was drawn into your red […]
Edith Södergran: The Bride
My circle is narrow and the ring of my thoughtsis closed around my finger.Something warm lies at the bottom of all the unknown surrounding me,like the faint smell in the chalice of the waterlilies.Thousands of apples hang in my father’s […]
Edith Södergran: Dangerous Dreams
Don’t go too near to your dreams:they are smoke and easily scatter in the wind –they are dangerous and often last. Have you stared deep into the eyes of your dreams:they are sick and understand nothing at all –they only live […]
Edith Södergran: Autumn
Now it is autumn and the golden birdsall fly home over deep blue waters;on the beach I sit and starein the midst of the trembling glareand the hour of parting sighs through the branches.Great is the parting, separation near,but reunion […]
Edith Södergran: Nocturnal Madonna
When the black clouds moved across the skya mother sat awake by her sleeping child.And the voice of an angel in the stillness of the nightsang the law of all worlds. And the young mother heard as an echodeep inside […]
Edith Södergran: An Encounter
Three maidens went hand in hand across an open plain.They met a rider covered with a cloak.The first maiden stretched out her arms: love, come!The second maiden fell on her knees: spare me, death!The third maiden turned to the right:the […]
Edith Södergran: The Portrait
For my brief songs,the merrily moaning, the evening red,Spring gave me the egg of a waterfowl. I asked my beloved to paint my portrait on its thick shell.He painted a young onion in brown topsoil –and on the other side a […]
Edith Södergran: Hospital Visit
I bring you a sole flower-heavy branchfrom the vast forest of spring.You say nothing and starewith your deep, sick eyesat the light reflections in the glass.You say nothing and smile,for this spring moves by, past your heart.We have nothing more […]
Edith Södergran: The Rose
I am beautiful for I grew in the garden of my beloved.I stood in Spring showers and drank desire,I stood in the sun and drank glow –now I stand open and wait.
Edith Södergran: Summer in the Mountains
Simple is the summer in the mountains:the meadow blossoms,the old farm smilesand the brook’s dim babble speaks of found happiness.
Edith Södergran: The Star
What do you know? What do you know?It is difficult to say.I feel happiness in my hand, happiness in itself,I have luck, the great luck, in my fingers. Oh wonderful luck!I’m counted among those who believe in their own star:to […]
Edith Södergran: The Large Garden
We are all on a homeless rambling,one sole group of siblings.Naked we walk clad in shreds with our bundles,but what do the lords own compared to us?Through the air treasures stream to meet uswhich cannot be measured by the weight […]
Edith Södergran: The Aspiration of the Lightning
I am an eagle.It is my confession.Not poet,never anything else.Everything else I despise.To me there is nothing but circling in the flight of an eagle.What happens in the flight of an eagle?Always the same, the eternal.In the sky a lightning […]
Edith Södergran: Decision
I am a very mature person,but nobody knows me.My friends are mistaken about me.I am not tame.I have measured the tameness in my eagle’s talons and know it well.Oh eagle, what sweetness in the flight of your wings.Shall you be silent […]
Edith Södergran: Sun
I am blissful.Bold morning sun, shine into my face, touch my brow.No, you already hear my proud answer.The arrogance of my heart increases with every orbit of the sun.It is as if I held the sphere of the sun in my […]
Edith Södergran: Animalistic Hymn
The red sun riseswithout thoughtsand is the same to everybody.We enjoy the sun like children.There comes a day when our dust shall crumble,it doesn’t matter when.Now, the sun shines into the inner-most corner of our heartsand fills everything with thoughtlessness,strong […]
Edith Södergran: Four Small Poems
I.How can one chest contain all this ecstasy?– it is the only question in my philosophy.And my only answer: because, because I know.What do I know?That I shall live in awe of the sunand not die and not win,a sun which cannot stand […]