Marja-Liisa Vartio

Three Trees
 
Tread the earth and put out the streams,
that the hostile soil, like a needle,
a black needle,
stabs into the heels.
 
You stand there looking at me.
 
Isn't the parting on your head like the milky way,
silent, clear, and bright.
 
You stand there looking at me
and three trees stand around you.
 
Under one tree a man and a woman
hurl flowers to one another from their eyes.
Under another they turn away from each other
letting ashes flow through fingers to the ground.
 
But the third tree is the tallest and thickest
and in its bowers two hearts are hiding.
 
When the tree was young, a knife came,
cut hearts on it,
when the tree grew, the hearts on the trunk
rose ever higher.
 
You stand there looking at me
and the three trees around you bend upwind, humming.
 
And a seaful of orchids surged up,
a seaful of cotton grass moved,
many flowers grew buds on my finger tips.
 
What if you pressed your hand
against my silence,
if my hair flew to all four winds,
what if I rose, if I moved,
moved, inside me –
 
Go away, don't look back,
don't listen.
Only the seas,
the seas in me cry for their bounds.

 
Translation from Finnish © Kirsti Simonsuuri

 

Back to Poems in alphabetical order
Back to Poems sorted by author