A Triumph To Exist

What do I fear? I am a part of infinity.
I am a part of the great power of the universe,
a single world within a million of worlds,
a star of the first magnitude which is extinguished at last.

A triumph to live, a triumph to breathe, a triumph to exist!
A triumph to feel time run icy cold through your veins
and hear the silent river of night
and stand on the mountains under the sun.

I walk on sunshine, I stand on sunshine,
I know of nothing but sunshine.


Time - transformer, time - destroyer, time - enchantress,
are you deceiving me with new intrigues,
a thousand ruses to give me an existence
like small seed, like curled snake, like a rock in the ocean?
Time - you murderess - avaunt!

The sun fills my breast up to the brim with sweet honey
and she says: one day all stars will die,
but they always shine fearlessly.

Edith Södergran, transl. by Martin Allwood

One Year Ago: Wooly and nice