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?
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 […]