I.I stand so bold, excited and happy.Shall the snowballs of fate cover me up?May the snow run in my brown hair,may the snow cool my loving neck.I lift my head. I have my secret, What is it that controls me?I […]
Edith Södergran: Hamlet
What does my mortal heart want? My mortal heart remains silent. My mortal heart wants nothing.Here lies all the Earth. You turn away in convulsions.A wand has touched this Earth, and it turned to dust.And where I sit on ruinsI […]
Edith Södergran: Materialism
In order not to die I must be the will to power.To avoid the fight of the atoms in dissolution.I am a chemical mass. I know it,I don’t believe in deceit and soul,the game of games is so foreign to […]
Edith Södergran: Ecstasy
It is dangerous to wish when you’re the mighty,therefore my wishes stand still.– – – – – – – –beware, the past dreams,beware, we hold the closed bowl of tomorrow in the hand,beware, the purest of everything pure,beware, blissfulness which […]
Edith Södergran: Oh, You, My Heart’s Vastness
Let me outstretch my arm, oh Life.Oh you my heart’s vastness. I waitto hear my voice.I will speak, my words shall fall like burning bonfires among the mosses.– – – – – – – –There is no hand that touches the […]
Edith Södergran: At Sunrise
People, people,like the rainfalls from HeavenI descend to the Earth. My blessed eyes have seen the stars,I have caught lightnings in my right hand,the power, the power streams over my lies. Fate puts me at watch at sunset.Hailed be the vastness around […]
Edith Södergran: Notion
My body, you loveliest of all which is lovely,wherefrom do you know that you have the power?This arm is exactly what the century needs.The lightning sits in my head and flames up one day,and people will see the blue glow […]
Edith Södergran: The Body of the Strong
I know, I know that I shall win.Whatever one calls me, whatever awaits me I am the star of the future.I have awoken on an ancient-old throne,wondrous hands lay out silk veils beneath me.The mystery runs in my veins.Mystery, I […]
Edith Södergran: Loneliness
There are so few among the sands of the ocean who understand it.Lonely have I come, lonely shall I leave.My free heart knows no brother.Christian spectres sit in all hearts and stretch out the hands of poverty.The sweetness streaming towards […]
Edith Södergran: Instinct
My body is a mystery.As long as the fragile livesyou shall feel its power.I shall save the world.Therefore Eros’ blood runs in my lipsand Eros’ gold in my tired locks.I need only to open my eyes.tired and depressed: the Earth […]
Edith Södergran: The Lightning
You lightning who hides in the clouds,blue lightning which I see,when do you break out?Lightning, you blessed one,thunder-filled, fertilizing, cleansing,I wait exhausted for you.My body lies like a scrapin order to once, grabbed by electric hands,firmer than all the ore […]
Edith Södergran: Eros Transforms the World
Eros transforms the world.The sail in his hand is full of miracles,Eros doesn’t see small human fights,but with burning eyes he seessun and moon complete their orbits.They are so near to his pregnant soul,what does his wild mind dream?The stars […]
Edith Södergran: The Secret of Eros
I live red. I live my blood.I have not denied Eros.My red lips burn on cold sacrificial stones.I know you, Eros –you are not man or woman,you are the forcethat crouches in the templeand suddenly stands up, wilder than the […]
Edith Södergran: The Waterfall
Creation-longing around my heart,the clouds around me which I kiss with my own lips.Clouds, do you know what shall become of me? I will visit a fortune teller today.Lift your hand and show me my future.I see your eyes like steel. […]
Edith Södergran: The Scepter of the Elf Queen (fragment)
Where is he,the one I have seen in a joyous dream?Where is he,the one whom my helpless arms never reach?Where is he,the one whom the shadow on my brow denies?Where is he,he who lifts a tired flower from the roadand […]
Edith Södergran: Resurrection Mystery
The heavenly angels sing down to the Earth: rip the curtain of death to pieces, rip it down! A woman lies in the black room of sorrow.Large candles burn around her stretcher.On her face glows a longing for lifeas if […]
Edith Södergran: The Sun
I stand as if on clouds in exceptional happiness.Red burns the edges of the clouds. It is the sun.The sun has kissed me. Such kisses nothing on Earth.Is life eternal like the witnessing of this moment,oh no, to rise up […]
Edith Södergran: The Net
I own the net all fish swim into.Joyous the calm bosom of the fisherwoman riseswhen she pulls aboard the silvery catch.The riches of the world I carry on my shoulders.I carry you, I carry you to a fairytale pond.Up on the […]
Edith Södergran: Eros’ Temple
I saw that Eros’ temple was made of human bodies.In there the god’s image, the eternally single.What his lips offer nobody has understood,what his deepest thoughts are about nobody knows.His gaze just whips the careless young bodiesplaying with each other.We know […]
Edith Södergran: The Lost Crown
I mourn like I had lost a fairytale crown.Oh the crown of all dreams,shall this pale brow bend itself and resign?I have found everything.Reject the victor, teach him humility?