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?
Edith Södergran: Tantalos, Fill Your Cup
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 […]