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Fjordscene Poetry

Poetry, writing and translations by K-M Skalkenæs

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Most of the poems in the collection were written within a year – between Summer 1918 and Spring 1919. A few of them were intended to be published with her previous collection ‘The September Lyre’, but were refused inclusion there.

While the topic of this collection is similar to the last, its tone is warmer and less tense.

Category: The Rose Altar

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Roses

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

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
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Scherzo

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

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 Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Hour of the Victim

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

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
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Fragment of a Mood

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

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
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Dionysos

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

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
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Sister, My Sister

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

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 […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Godchild

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

The godchild sat with me.The golden lyre sang under my hands.The god-child stare towards endless twilight hours.The song circles around her head with outstretched wings.What do you see in the song?It is your own future risingout of frozen twilight hours,your […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Something Inexplicable Is Approaching Us

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Who can love you, sister?Won’t a god with darkened face embrace you with his arms?Doesn’t he stand at the foot of the bed when you doze?Shall our eyes see him, sister?Didn’t we live in the fairytale, where everything impossible is […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Sister

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I once had a sister, a golden child.In the city she disappeared for me in the masses. If I among black coniferssee the young birch shake its golden locksI then remember my sister. Does she stand wide-eyed among the treeswith beating heart,does […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: All the Echoes in the Forest

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

No, no, no shout all the echoes in the forest.I have no sister.I am lifting her white silk gown as I walkand dye it powerlessly.I kiss you, my suffering I place in you,thoughtless loom,do you remember her rosy limbs?Her shoes […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: I Believe In My Sister

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

In walk in the desertand sit lonely on the mountains,on the Devil’s rock,where sorrows have waitedfor thousands of years.I have a sister.The elf-girls wove her silk garments,the moon virgin sprinkled dew on her breasts…She is delightful… desired by gods. Oh […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: In the Darkness

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I didn’t find love. I met nobody.Trembling I passed Zarathustra’s grave in the autumn nights:who on Earth listens to me anymore?Then an arm were laid lightly around my waist –I found a sister…I took her golden locks –is it you, […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Letter From My Sister

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Letter from my sister.What can letters saywhen I see you!Does the hair not fall lightly around you in golden waveswhen you enterto tell me about your life?Do the awestruck folds of your dress not harden when you leave?The Earth carries […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Spring Mystery

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Sister,you come like a spring wind to our valleys…The violets in the shadow smell sweetly of fulfillment.I will lead you to the loveliest spot in the forest:Here we will confess to each other how we saw God.

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Martyr

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

The martyr is pale.His eyes burn.Pitying he looksdown at you. What do you know aboutwhat swarms here and therewith grim movements,what do you know about your welfare,how does it feel to raise your head freely. He is acquittedwhom the rest […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Statue of Beauty

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I saw beauty.It was my fate! It explains everything.How thank for it?Fresh roses, picked with warm hands,I lay every single dayin front of your statueso your smile can find rest.Where do I find rosesthat don’t offend my dreams?It is my […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Ring

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Facing the eyes of all the worldsyou must decide…Will you enter the ring…?Nobody enters the ring lightly.The gods come to fetch you –you stepped aside,your hour hadn’t come.When the hour comesyou will give up the heart in your chestand silently grasp […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Torches

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I will light my torches all over the Earth.My torch shall standon each and every nightly farmin the Alps, where the air is a blessing,in the tundra, where the sky is melancholy.Oh my torch, shine for the shocked,the teary-eyed, the […]

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: Questions

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

I need nothing but God’s mercy.Through life I go as if intoxicated.– – – – – – – –Oh, you strangely sparkling reality –— is there a bowlfor my few drops of rose oil?

  • Edith Södergran
  • The Rose Altar
12 Jan, 202012

Edith Södergran: The Song About the Ocean

Posted By K-M Skalkenæs

Careful, careful,what do you press to your chest?Do they resemble youlike these seas resemblethe ocean that cries in anger? Ocean, ocean,you throw yourself from beach to beachin insatiable longing,you pound during the nighton the iron plates of the Earth till […]

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