The champagne of lifewe drink pearlylight as foamtransparentchampagne-hearts… Champagne-eyes –the sky winks promisingly at you. Champagne-feet –follow your star Champagne-spirits –the glass cheers in your hands!
Edith Södergran: Light Patches
I have powers. I fear nothing.Light is heaven to me.If the world comes to an end –I shall not perish.My light horizons standover the stormy night of the Earth.Step out of the mysterious light patch!Unyielding my power waits.
Edith Södergran: Carefreeness
I don’t believe in humans.I’d have crushed my lyreif I didn’t believe in God.God shows me the wayout of the fog to the sun’s shining orb.He loves those who wander lightfootedly.Therefore he gave me all this carefreeness.I believe in him as […]
Edith Södergran: The Train of the Future
Tear down all gates of honour –they’re too low.Make room for our amazing train!Heavy is the future – build bridgesfor endless time! Giants, carry rocks from the end of the world!Demons, pour oil on the kettles!Monster, calculate the width with […]
Edith Södergran: The Armoured Trains
Fifty wagons with hope I had loaded for your America.They returned empty…The freight of disappointment…Now I’ll send armoured trains with rockhard masks in threatening peepholes:Wagons with achieval will return home by the thousands.
Edith Södergran: The Genie of the Apocalypse (fragment)
Humans, it swells in my breast.Flames, smoke and the stench of burned flesh:it is the war.– – – – – – – –I’ve come from the war – I arose out of chaos –I am the elements – in biblical […]
Edith Södergran: The Condition
Without actionI cannot live,chained to the lyre I would die.Is the lyre indeed the greatest on Earth for meI stayed true to it,was I not a flaming soul.The one who doesn’t with bloody nailsbreak a crack in the wall of […]
Edith Södergran: The Mother of God’s Rose
A rose lies in the arms of the Mother of God.A single petalheals crippled hearts.A rose lies in the arms of the Mother of God.She smiles with shining eyes –who will heal their poisonous hearts?
Edith Södergran: The God’s Lyre
Where does the lyre exists,of silver and ivory,which the gods presentedto the tribe of mortals?It has not been lost,since eternal presentsaren’t worn down by time,do not fall victim to fire. But does a singer comewith the deep marks of fate,he’ll fetch […]
Edith Södergran: The Trail of the Gods
The gods go through life with hearts raised above the pain…The gods carry life as lightly as columns carry brilliant rooms.The gods go through life, lonely, un-recognized they stand and watch our dark earth with eternal eyes.And where they have […]
Edith Södergran: The Fairy’s Castle
Behind the sea begins the mountains,behind the mountains is the fairy’s castle in the clouds.The fairy is eternally fifteen years old. –Her sunshine garments are more precious than the Earth.The fairy wishes everybody as blessed as her…her light heart she […]
Edith Södergran: Revanche
If I don’t succeed in bringing downthe tower in the town of reality,I will sing the stars from the skylike nobody has yet done.I will sing till my longing stops,the one that has never yet calmed,so that it pushes away […]
Edith Södergran: Landscape At Sunset
Look at the sunsetfloating fire-islands moveimperial over cream green seas.Islands on fire! Islands like torches!Islands on victory parade!Up from the depths a black forest sparklessneaky, envious – joyous, tree by tree, triumph by triumph…Poor stripes of forest in pale veils of mistis […]
Edith Södergran: The Whirl of Madness
Protect your boat against superhuman currents,the whirling abyss of madness –protect your boat against the cheering waves of the fall,they crush everything.Protect yourself – here you don’t count anymore –life and death is one against the frenetic happiness of the […]
Edith Södergran: The Song From the Cloud
Up on the clouds live all I need:my daylight – sure ideas, my lightning – quick certainty,and on the clouds I myself live– white, in sun which blinds,inaccessible, happy, waving goodbye.Goodbye, green woods of my youth.There hang beasts –I will […]
Edith Södergran: The Secret of the Moon
The moon knows… that I must only float here tonight.In copper bands over the lake a certainty shines forth:corpses must lay among the trees on a wonderful beach.The moon shall cast its most beautiful light on the mysterious beach.The wind […]
Edith Södergran: Evening Walk
All the golden stars of time on my dark velvet suit.I am triumphant… tonight… and I tremble.The hard poles of fate pound from my chest.Does the wind whirl up the sand on all pavements?– – – – – – – […]
Edith Södergran: The Storm
Humans,doesn’t the storm pass over the skythat your longing has piled upby eagles borneto eternal heights?Who will bring the storm to its knees?Where does it hit,when it comes from the heights, reckless, with the wings of distant times?Do you hearvoices […]
Edith Södergran: The World Bathes In Blood
The world bathes in blood in order for God to survive.For His magnificence to endure, all other must perish.What do we humans know about how the eternal thrivesand what the gods drink to sustain their power?God will create a new world. […]
Edith Södergran: Prayer
God, Almighty, have mercy on us!See the well of our adoration – it grows deeper and deeper.Seven days and seven nightswe draw waterfrom our well to you.Seven months and three yearsin the same placewe pray for your mercy:let us into […]