Edith Södergran

Love
 
My soul was a light blue dress the color of the sky;
I left it on a rock by the sea
and naked I came to you, looking like a woman.
And like a woman I sat at your table
and drank a toast in wine, inhaling the scent of
                                                  some roses.
You found me beautiful, like something you saw in
                                                  a dream,
I forgot everything, I forgot my childhood and my
                                                  homeland,
I only knew that your caresses held me captive.
And smiling you held up a mirror and asked me
                                                  to look.
I saw that my shoulders were made of dust and
                                                  crumbled away,
I saw that my beauty was sick and wished only to –
                                                  disappear.
Oh, hold me tight in your arms so close that
                                                  I need nothing.

 
Translation from Swedish © Stina Katchadourian

 

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