The Beggar and the Hare

My translation of Tuomas Kyrö's novel Kerjäläinen ja jänis (The Beggar and the Hare) will be published by Short Books on March 6, and is available for pre-order as a hardback or a Kindle download.

One Evening in October

I'm working on a complete translation of Tua Forsström's collection En kväll i oktober rodde jag ut på sjön (One Evening in October I Rowed Out on the Lake, Schildts & Söderströms, 2012), to be published by Bloodaxe in a bilingual Swedish-English facing-text edition in early 2015.

Versions of some of the translations have already appeared in Books from Finland and Swedish Book Review.

Two Poems

by Gösta Ågren

The Future Is...

The future is unfurnished

as if it were a room

in place of an idea,

but your plans are ready

and you start work,

as to begin with fate is

so light that we don’t notice

the burden. The inevitable

needs no emphasis.


 July. Night.

The road doesn’t release

its grip on the car.

Driving is only

rhythm. The journey

moves slowly through

the summer night, which is

white with now. Sadness

heals sorrow.

from Centralsång (2013)

translated from Finland-Swedish by David McDuff

The Bridge of Sleep

by Saima Harmaja

Long is the days’ journey

to evening’s dim domain.

Lonely the blissful moment

exhausted by the pain:

I slumber in blue evening,

a bridge spans in between,

taking me from time’s chasms

to the land of the unseen.

When darkness wraps the senses

and, warm, the mind succumbs,

beside me they are present,

they breathe, the  heavenly ones.

Gone is the cruelest longing.

From my pain I am freed

he smiles with shining eyes

the one whom I met in my need.

He that went on ahead,

precious, grown cold his brow,

like a pale star of spring

he stays here with me now.

Broken the frame of his body.

Spirit and earth are one.

Into my tear-hot eyes

the brightness trickles down.

Waking in midst of sleep

I see, veiled by dust from above:

it is one, the land that lies there,

the kingdom of longing and love.

Across the bitter limit

on gleaming threads set free,

love goes from the circle of time

to a land that I cannot yet see.

May 3, 1936

UNEN SILTA

Pitkä on päivien retki

illan himmeyteen.

Yksi on autuas hetki

kivusta uupuneen:

nukkua siintoon illan,

uneen, mi kaartua suo

pois ajan kuiluista sillan

näkymätönten luo.

Kun jo on hämärä hellä

kietonut aistimet,

luonani hengähdellä

alkavat taivaiset.

Poissa on kaipaus julmin.

Tuskani irroittain

hymyy hohtavin kulmin

hän, jota nääntyen hain.

Hän, joka edeltä lähti,

kallis ja kylmennyt,

kuin kevätkalpea tähti

luonani viipyy nyt.

Murtunut on kehä ruumiin.

Yhtä on henki ja maa.

Silmiini kyynelkuumiin

kirkkaus uppoaa.

Valvoen keskellä unta

nään, tomuhuntuinen:

yksi on valtakunta

kaipuun ja rakkauden.

Ylitse katkeran rajan

hohtavin langoin käy

rakkaus piiristä ajan

maahan, mi vielä ei näy.

 3.5.1936

translated from Finnish by David McDuff