Schakel 8, keuze Hasso Krull

By Claes Andersson

You can live in a house you have never seen, that has never
    been built.
You can live there with a woman you have
   never met.
There’s a bed that you exchange because
   it’s too narrow.
At the kitchen table you look out over a garden where
   lilac and burnet rose bloom.
Right from the outset you feel that it’s a home
  although it is not a home.
The rent is so low that you can afford a bottle
   of wine every evening.
You can pack it full of friends, sing together
   all night.
Some stranger has lived there, someone who loved
   long-haired cats.
You can leave the doors unlocked at night
   without fear.
When the urge to depart becomes overwhelming you leave it
   with joy.
When you return you no longer remember
   the address, never find it again.

From: Huden där den är som tunnast [The Skin Where It’s Thinnest], Söderströms , Helsinki, 1991.

translated from Finland-Swedish by David McDuff