Sunday 1 August 2010

The Days of Autumn




The days of autumn are transparent
and painted on the golden foundation of the forest ...
The days of autumn smile at the whole world.
It is so relieving to fall asleep without desires,
weary of the flowers and tired of the greenery,
with the red wreath of wine at my pillow ...
The days of autumn does not yarn any longer,
its fingers are implacably cold,
in its dreams it sees
how everywhere with snowflakes are falling ...

Edith Södergran
1892-1923



Höstens dagar äro genomskinliga
och målade på skogens gyllne grund...
Höstens dagar le åt hela världen.
Det är så skönt att somna utan önskan,
mätt på blommorna och trött på grönskan,
med vinets röda krans vid huvudgärden...
Höstens dag har ingen längtan mer,
dess fingrar äro obevekligt kalla,
i sina drömmar överallt den ser,
hur vita flingor oupphörligt falla...

Edith Södergran
1892-1923

24 comments:

Jenny said...

Jag har alltid tyckt allra bäst om hösten.

Intressant att jämföra Södergran på svenska och engelska; bägge versioner är bra!

Lily said...

I was just thinking: is it already autumn in Sweden?!
But then again "höst" means autumn, but also harvest and they are harvesting, even though it isn't really autumn at all...
I mean up north you still have the midnight sun... well okay it's not Sweden anymore, northern Norway... but still...
But it's funny coming down south, already around Lulea it's a whole not darker at night than f.ex. in Ivalo...
Anyways, we've just been there and a little bit inland from the E4, south of Lulea, north of Kalix, we always seem to meet a Moose (don't know if it's the same one, lol!) but she is even kind enough to pose for us... but every time the light is just too bad so all my pix really suck! a real petty.

you can see some of the pix on my gallery-blog by the way.

which brings me to something else: I had made all of my blogs private, since they really needed tidying up, but the gallery-blog and the B&B-blog are open again, but the rest will have to wait until the weather is colder.

next week we will also open the gallery on our farm.

Last not least: do you know Björn Afzelius' song "höst"? it's really romantic and fits with your poem!

DawnTreader said...

It's a beautiful picture and the poem goes well with it... In my mind most of August still belongs to the summer, autumn begins in September. In many ways I know nothing better than a clear, fine early autumn day... but I do not look forward to the winter... so I always feel a little ambivalent...

Charles Gramlich said...

"the red wreath of wine." Now that is a lovely line.

darkfoam said...

beautiful! it's still very hot here but very subtly nature here is is heralding the next season.

ANNA-LYS said...

Thank You for Your comments!

It is still hot here at the coast of South West Sweden, but there is a change, a calmness that I love. I can not really explain it, so I tried anyway with help of
Edith Södergran's poem :-)

Ruela said...

Love it ;)


Have a nice weekend!

Steve Malley said...

That poem really was beautiful. Thank you! :)

Anonymous said...

*sighs*

I can hardly wait for the season of my dreams to start again...

Little Lamb said...

Fall is a pretty time of year.

Anonymous said...

It is still really hot in Dallas.

Autumn comes late in Texas.

Anonymous said...

Kul att se dig igen Anna-Lys. Jag vet vad jag får när jag går på Lundell-konsert och blir nöjd och glad flera dar i rad. Känslan sitter i länge.

Hösten gillar jag också men jag blir nog aldrig trött på grönskan.

laughingwolf said...

as one who is rocktober born, i'm with edith... bring on the end of summer!

[not been a good spring or summer, here] :(

Osloskånskan said...

Åhh....lite mer sommar, værsåsnill!

Anonymous said...

i love the fall,
but mid-summer is a bit early
to be thinking of bare trees and snowflakes!

× × ×

/t.

Unknown said...

The leaves as the poem are transparent. Autumn is a part of life. Whether this a better time than puberty, I can't tell.


ps. Did a comment earlier? My comment seems to have vanished. ds.

puerileuwaite said...

I just noticed how the second author plagiarized the first, verbatim, even copying her name and lifespan; then she tried to cover it up by using a foreign language. This disturbs me so much, that I found it difficult to properly absorb the meaning (sommething to do with fall, apparently).

PJ van Zyl said...

wow Image to go with the prose
:-)

dianne said...

Such a beautiful poem and image dear Anna-Lys, perfect for each other.
xoxoxo ♡

Black Bart said...

Ediths always seem to make the best poets.

Pervaiz said...

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Thanks for sharing this.

Unknown said...

Löv ;-)

Anonymous said...

very very close. http://www.peterkornstradgard.se/bildsidor/alfa_frames.htm

Idag är Torpa stenhus inplanerat. Sista semesterveckan. Jag vill ha mer mer mer semester. Det finns så mycket att göra.

Anonymous said...

Peter Korns trädgård ligger i Eskilsby. Har du varit där?