Oh, my sunburn-coloured pinnacles,will you reclaim me? !!!Eternally I shall live in your lonely yard.There alone is my home,where angels with fire-eyesfall to their kneesand kiss all the dew of longing from the ground. Oh, my undarkened pinnacles!Not a day do […]
Edith Södergran: The Bull
What awaits the bull?My character is a red cloth.Do I not see bloody, red eyes,do I not hear short, ragged breaths,does the earth not tremble under ferocious hooves?No.The bull has no horns.He stands at the criband stubbornly chews his tough […]
Edith Södergran: Grimace d’Artiste
I have nothing but my shining cloak,my red fearlessness.My red fearlessness goes on questsin unworthy countries. I have nothing but the lyre under my arm,my hard string-music;my hard lyre sounds for all peopleon all tracks. I have nothing but my proud […]
Edith Södergran: The Tree In the Forest
There once grew a tree in the forest –beautiful and mighty –I have seen it…It rose over the mists of the ravine towards the lonesome pinnacles of the Earth in lonesome glory.– – – – – – – –Now I hear […]
Edith Södergran: Little Old Man
Little Old Man is counting eggs.Every time he counts there’s one egg less.Friends, do not show him your gold!
Edith Södergran: The Death of the Virgin
The soul of the pure virgin was never mistaken,she knew everything about herself,she knew still more: about other people and about the sea.Blueberry her eyes, raspberry her lips,her hands wax.She danced for the autumn on yellowing carpets,she shrank, whirled and […]
Edith Södergran: What Is Tomorrow?
What is tomorrow? Perhaps not you.Another embrace perhaps, another contact and an identical pain…I leave you with a certainty nobody else has:I will return like a piece of your own pain.I will come to you from another heaven with a […]
Edith Södergran: Strong Hyacinths
You won’t get me to believe in disgusting flies– revenge and selfish desires.I believe in strong hyacinths dripping ancient juice. Lilies heal and cleanse like my own power.You won’t get me to believe in disgusting fliesspreading stench and contagion.I believe […]
Edith Södergran: Discovery
Your love darkens my star –the moon rises in my life.My hand is not at home in yours.Your hand is desire –mine is longing.
Edith Södergran: Dusk
The night comes great with its flossy beardand smiles broadly to all the halfway veiled.Colossal and shapeless all the shapes of the park grow outof the silent lilacs in the dusk.The pretty lilacs have sleepy ears,they dream that the sun […]
Edith Södergran: To a Young Woman
Never did a lusty glance deceive.Hold the man’s heart between your inexperienced child-fingers,draw the man’s flames into the icy chamber of your eyes!You believe in love like you believe in Heaven.He shall give you his heart, a realm and all […]
Edith Södergran: Triumph To Exist
What do I fear? I am part of infinity.I am part of the great force of the All,a lonely world in millions of worlds,a first degree star that is extinguished last.Triumph to live, triumph to breathe, triumph to exist!Triumph to feel […]
Edith Södergran: Introductory Remark
That my writing is poetry none can deny, that it’s on verses I won’t postulate. I have attempted to give certain reluctant poems a rhythm and have thereby observed that I only own the skill of images and words in […]
Edith Södergran: The Waiting
I am alone between the trees by the lake,I live in friendship with the old conifers of the beachand in secret understanding with all young rowans.Alone do I lay and wait,nobody have I seen walk past.Large flowers watch me from […]
Edith Södergran: The Pain
Happiness has no songs, happiness has no thoughts, happiness has nothing.Punch your happiness so it bursts, for happiness is evil.Happiness comes quietly with morning-winds in sleeping greenery,happiness slides away in light cloud-images over deep blue ravines,happiness is the field which […]
Edith Södergran: Hell
Oh, how lovely Hell is!In Hell nobody speaks of death.The walls of Hell rest in the Earth’s coreand are decorated with smoldering flowers…In Hell nobody speaks empty words…In Hell nobody has drunk and nobody sleptand nobody rests and nobody stays still.In […]
Edith Södergran: Life
I, my own prisoner, say:life is not springtime clad in light green velvetor a caress you rarely receive,life is not a decision about walkingor two white arms holding you back.Life is the narrow ring keeping us captive,the invisible circle we […]
Edith Södergran: At the Beach
When it rains and the sea is grey I become ill…I laugh with the sun, blow with the wind and get turned on with the sea:I only love the sea in uproar.I live in a cave with many bats,but I am […]
Edith Södergran: From Lilliput’s Saga
Finally the lazy arose –he put his hands in every flower vase,he felt under every leaf,he sought the black worm in order to kill it.While he slept in the shape of a grass strawthe black worm ate his head.Three women […]
Edith Södergran: Life’s Sister
Life looks most like death, her sister.Death is no different,you can caress her and hold her hand and stroke her hair,she will hand you a flower and smile.You can hide your face at her bosomand hear her say: it’s time […]