'Det är sent på jorden' - Ekelöf poem in English translation

cosmic sleepwalker

the trees undress the stars start to fall

the cold yellows the leaves that scrape the great horizon of

         the sunset.

the withered leaves fall softly over broken eyes that

         forever stare into the sky’s extinction.

the withered leaves settle softly over the eyes of the blind

         child and over the hands that grope in sleep and hunt

         for shells among the stones on the shore

and in the sunset’s bloodshame the memory of the time lives on

         when i myself was blind as a child and my dreams

         were a child’s dreams.

now it is late on the earth, and fate is already sealing my eyes

         but the dreams transform me once more into a child

         that hunts high and low for shells in the twilight that

         falls over the deserted nursery of the shores

and listens to the beautiful waves burst into tears against

         the blind stones of the shores

the world is deserted and bare before the sea and dusk cast

         a veil over my threadbare despair and the sea is

         far off in front of my feet

deep down there the fishermen sleep soundly amongst their shells

help me to search help me to search for the sake of love and

         the tears transformed into pearls deep down in the sea

the stars are already falling mesmerised like questions from another

         world and the autumn wind answers with oracles from the trees’

         branches distant as the sea and the stars

distant as a motionless thought in the stars’ grey heads that

         blindly since time immemorial have pondered the invisible

help me to search help me to search for my own shell that

         i love blind as a child for the hope of life’s pearl

         help me to search before it’s all over

my final breath is already disappearing as vapour amongst seaweed

         and starfish and my face becoming hazier and hazier as

         in a mist disappearing slowly like a moist profile

         in the sand

a bird falls silent and a half-closed flower whispers words from a

         wilderness that neither sees nor hears i am falling

         falling into eternity distant as the sea and

         the stars

help me to search help me to search for the sake of love and

         the tears transformed into pearls down in the sea

my longing blows away the clouds from horizon’s temple

         distant as the autumn wind or my final breath that

         is disappearing among the stars distant as the stars

         in the sea

and the beautiful waves that all are each other’s sisters

         wash away my footsteps in the sand and burst into tears against

         the shore’s blind stones

help me to search for my own shell that has disappeared in the sea

         of eternity and the great indefinite that i love blindly

         like a child for the hope of life’s pearl

lonely lonely as a pillar on the plain and blind as a child

         whose loneliness the never-ending mother sings softly to

         sleep

tired and meaningless as an answer without question or a question

         without answer.

the trees undress the stars start to fall

         it is late on the earth.