Are these poems? No, they’re rags, scraps,everyday’s paper-scraps.Tantalos, fill your cup.Impossibility, Impossibility,dying I throw the wreath from my locks into your eternal void.
Edith Södergran: Blissfulness
Soon I will stretch out on my bed,small genies shall cover me in white veilsand red roses they shall lay on my stretcher.I die – for I am way too happy.In a state of blissfulness I even bite my shroud.My foot […]
Edith Södergran: Which Is My Homeland?
Which is my homeland? Is it the distant, star-sprinkled Finland?Indifferent. Low rocks, flip over on flat beaches.I stand on your grey granite as if on certainty.You certainty, you shall always sprinkle laurels and roses on my path.I am the god who […]
Edith Södergran: You, Great Eros
You, great Eros. You breathe wedding.But which wedding?As long as the Earth has endured and desire has joined two bodiesthe lightning hasn’t reachedhuman brows.This lightning strikes,the lightning is almighty,the lightning does whatever it wants to human children.
Edith Södergran: The Shadow of the Future
I sense the shadow of death.I know that our fates lay in piles on the table of the Norns.I know that not one drop of rain is sucked by the groundwithout having been written in the book of eternal times.I know as […]
Edith Södergran: Power
I am the commanding power. Where are those who follow me?Even the greatest carry the shield dream-like.Is there nobody who reads the force of delight in my eyes?Is there nobody who understands it when I quietly say simple words to […]
Edith Södergran: The Planets
Wild earth rolling forwards in burning, cutting spaces,happy when the air whips your cheek,happy when speed revolves around you.The planets only want the speed of their orbit.The beaches of the All blink like question marks.Hastier, quicker, more and more merciless, […]
Edith Södergran: The Stars Are Swarming
The stars rise. The stars swarm. Strange evening.A thousand hands lift the veil off the face of the new epoch.The new epoch looks down upon the Earth: melting hot glances.Madness runs quietly in the hearts of people.Yellow stupidities embrace the […]
Edith Södergran: Wallenstein Profile
Night which calls, I play throw and catch with you– my foul dice.My hand is heavy and fearless, with evil powerdoes it play its game, which never denies help.My dice falls heavy with fate.Hail, the way of power goes through the […]
Edith Södergran: Creator Figures
My heart of iron wants to sing its song.Force, forcethe sea of people,shape, shapethe great mass of peoplefor the joy of gods.Rocking in loose saddles we come,the unknown, improvident, strong.Does the wind carry us ahead?Like scorning laughter our voices sound […]
Edith Södergran: Hostile Stars
Hostile stars ascend.Eternally foreign, eternally distantyou seek to smile to one another, deceived by human faith.Every star has a freezing gaze.Every star is proud and lonely in its forceand doesn’t believe in the twinkling of stars.Every star deceived Man to […]
Edith Södergran: An Old Ruler
Earth, on your back I have built a castle for conquerors,there the strong ones shall find shelter,the strong ones who are waiting.There stand the melancholy windowsand speak of crashed destinies,there you must walk young, you bronze peoplewith tremors, alike myself. And your […]
Edith Södergran: Tolerance
Can you catch a star ascending in the sky with your hands,can you measure its flight?Do not try to prevent its ascendance.The sparks of the planets fall over the Earth, foreign to your hand.Strange and hot are the sparks of […]
Edith Södergran: The Mystery
All people are toys.I was a toy myself yesterday.Today I am the one who breaks open the mystery.I want everybody to come to me,I want everybody to hear how my heart beats.Fire and blood and the balm of the future shall […]
Edith Södergran: Roses
The world is mine.Wherever I goI throw roses to everybody.The artist loves every marble ear that hear his words.What does pain and misery mean to me?Everything crashed with a bang:I sing.Such rises the great hymn of pain from a happy […]
Edith Södergran: Scherzo
Stars up there, definitively dear, my heart on Earth is definitively clear.Wondrous starry night, we are one. Do I not sit trembling on a line of stars… as if it could break?Time, it is you, sleepy abyss that yawning mocks […]
Edith Södergran: The Hour of the Victim
Hear the bell toll.It’s the hour of the victim.The bell tolls.What more must you sacrifice?You’ve been lying on the sacrificial tablefor many years.Even lying on a sacrificial tableis no pain.What more must you sacrifice?You love still, you love still,say no […]
Edith Södergran: Fragment of a Mood
I.Wind, wind, wind!Sprinkle roses and daffodils from the garden of my memory,where my young dreams roam.The wall of the mountains stands tall,the highland sun shines wildly on my locks.Empty garden, do you give no answer?– – – – – – […]
Edith Södergran: Dionysos
Oh Dionysos, you come from the distant heavenly spaces with the horses of the sun.The Earth waits teary-eyed like a woman in prayer.Oh Dionysos, Dionysos!over our heads we hear the roar of the hooves of your horses.Liberation, liberation,sing the fresh reins.Oh […]
Edith Södergran: Sister, My Sister
Sister, my sister, you are still small,but have long since seen God,blessed is your brow, oh how it shines.Since you saw God you have avoided people.You sat down lonely among the trees,but the brook went silentand the birds no longer sang.The […]