Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Bo Carpelan: Thirteen Poems

Over there
in foreign lands
nothing but vanity
there isn't anything
said
the widely travelled one
looking into the distance

•

Friends with the trees
friends with oneself

•

It peers
from the forest
from the chink in the door
the autumn crocus

•

The vital thread tensed
the tone sweet
breaks, suddenly

•

Drew out
the aching wisdom
lived happy

•

Ill-matched pieces
of body
gathered
to soul

•

Each dawn
a warning
until he believed
plunged downhill

•

What I fled
came back
had to seek
other ways
unfamiliar laid out by stones
towards new land

•

With quiet mind
silent around eye and lips
my day of shadows
my lost faithful life

•

Her gaze
the chill at her wrist

•

You who cure sorrow
cure joy
give windless bay
empty shores

•

Join dreams together
to a single reality
a longing

•

Where did you leave me
where did you hide me
even before you went away from me
in the days of early spring?
I left you
because you did not exist
neither in the spring's, nor in the autumn's
changing days
only when the day
was at its fairest

• • •

translated from Finland-Swedish by David McDuff

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