Now it is autumn and the golden birdsall fly home over deep blue waters;on the beach I sit and starein the midst of the trembling glareand the hour of parting sighs through the branches.Great is the parting, separation near,but reunion […]
Edith Södergran: Nocturnal Madonna
When the black clouds moved across the skya mother sat awake by her sleeping child.And the voice of an angel in the stillness of the nightsang the law of all worlds. And the young mother heard as an echodeep inside […]
Edith Södergran: An Encounter
Three maidens went hand in hand across an open plain.They met a rider covered with a cloak.The first maiden stretched out her arms: love, come!The second maiden fell on her knees: spare me, death!The third maiden turned to the right:the […]
Edith Södergran: The Portrait
For my brief songs,the merrily moaning, the evening red,Spring gave me the egg of a waterfowl. I asked my beloved to paint my portrait on its thick shell.He painted a young onion in brown topsoil –and on the other side a […]
Edith Södergran: Hospital Visit
I bring you a sole flower-heavy branchfrom the vast forest of spring.You say nothing and starewith your deep, sick eyesat the light reflections in the glass.You say nothing and smile,for this spring moves by, past your heart.We have nothing more […]
Edith Södergran: The Rose
I am beautiful for I grew in the garden of my beloved.I stood in Spring showers and drank desire,I stood in the sun and drank glow –now I stand open and wait.
Edith Södergran: Summer in the Mountains
Simple is the summer in the mountains:the meadow blossoms,the old farm smilesand the brook’s dim babble speaks of found happiness.
Edith Södergran: The Star
What do you know? What do you know?It is difficult to say.I feel happiness in my hand, happiness in itself,I have luck, the great luck, in my fingers. Oh wonderful luck!I’m counted among those who believe in their own star:to […]
Edith Södergran: The Large Garden
We are all on a homeless rambling,one sole group of siblings.Naked we walk clad in shreds with our bundles,but what do the lords own compared to us?Through the air treasures stream to meet uswhich cannot be measured by the weight […]
Edith Södergran: The Aspiration of the Lightning
I am an eagle.It is my confession.Not poet,never anything else.Everything else I despise.To me there is nothing but circling in the flight of an eagle.What happens in the flight of an eagle?Always the same, the eternal.In the sky a lightning […]
Edith Södergran: Decision
I am a very mature person,but nobody knows me.My friends are mistaken about me.I am not tame.I have measured the tameness in my eagle’s talons and know it well.Oh eagle, what sweetness in the flight of your wings.Shall you be silent […]
Edith Södergran: Sun
I am blissful.Bold morning sun, shine into my face, touch my brow.No, you already hear my proud answer.The arrogance of my heart increases with every orbit of the sun.It is as if I held the sphere of the sun in my […]
Edith Södergran: Animalistic Hymn
The red sun riseswithout thoughtsand is the same to everybody.We enjoy the sun like children.There comes a day when our dust shall crumble,it doesn’t matter when.Now, the sun shines into the inner-most corner of our heartsand fills everything with thoughtlessness,strong […]
Edith Södergran: Four Small Poems
I.How can one chest contain all this ecstasy?– it is the only question in my philosophy.And my only answer: because, because I know.What do I know?That I shall live in awe of the sunand not die and not win,a sun which cannot stand […]
Edith Södergran: The Hyacinth
I.I stand so bold, excited and happy.Shall the snowballs of fate cover me up?May the snow run in my brown hair,may the snow cool my loving neck.I lift my head. I have my secret, What is it that controls me?I […]
Edith Södergran: Hamlet
What does my mortal heart want? My mortal heart remains silent. My mortal heart wants nothing.Here lies all the Earth. You turn away in convulsions.A wand has touched this Earth, and it turned to dust.And where I sit on ruinsI […]
Edith Södergran: Materialism
In order not to die I must be the will to power.To avoid the fight of the atoms in dissolution.I am a chemical mass. I know it,I don’t believe in deceit and soul,the game of games is so foreign to […]
Edith Södergran: Ecstasy
It is dangerous to wish when you’re the mighty,therefore my wishes stand still.– – – – – – – –beware, the past dreams,beware, we hold the closed bowl of tomorrow in the hand,beware, the purest of everything pure,beware, blissfulness which […]
Edith Södergran: Oh, You, My Heart’s Vastness
Let me outstretch my arm, oh Life.Oh you my heart’s vastness. I waitto hear my voice.I will speak, my words shall fall like burning bonfires among the mosses.– – – – – – – –There is no hand that touches the […]
Edith Södergran: At Sunrise
People, people,like the rainfalls from HeavenI descend to the Earth. My blessed eyes have seen the stars,I have caught lightnings in my right hand,the power, the power streams over my lies. Fate puts me at watch at sunset.Hailed be the vastness around […]