Monday, 21 May 2012

One of fifty 'broken sonnets' by the Swedish poet Erik Lindegren



XX

what does death then shake from its sleeve that we do not know
a moth-eaten riddle a map for a thousand greedy eyes

a dragon’s music which everyone hears but no one understands
a tower of cloud that buries all our echoes

a cripple’s engraved nameplate in the spring of springs
and the pillars’ stone-heavy defiance in the sun-temple’s forecourt

a demon that roams disguised in the lull of fear
and the ocean’s long slit-eyes with a gleam of belladonna

and a rain’s whistling for the farm’s put-down dog
harshly out of tune like a called-off miracle

and yet disappointment must once more give birth to light
wonderfully, unexpectedly like an old man on the roof of spring

and the flesh becomes word and revelation blossoms
and the orbits of the planets slash the unsuspecting eye

For the entire cycle in English, go to here.

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