Thursday 19 May 2016

'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.


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