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To all on PFray
by Bratsche

Please let me recommend the following: "Love and Solitude", an issue of selected poems (1916 - 1923) by Edith Sodergran; translations by Stina Katchadourian, published in 1981 by Fjord Press, San Francisco. All good stuff. Some examples:

Autumn

The naked trees stand around your house
and let in endless sky and air,
the naked trees march down to the shore
and mirror themselves in the water.
A child still plays in the gray autumn smoke
and a girl walks with flowers in her hand
and at the edge of the sky
silver-white birds fly up.


My Soul

My soul can tell no tales and knows no truths,
my soul can only cry and laugh and wring its
hands;
my soul cannot remember and defend,
my soul cannot consider or approve.
As a child I say the sea: it was blue.
In my youth I met a flower: she was red.
Now a stranger sits by my side: he is colorless,
but I fear him no more than the virgin feared
the dragon.
The knight came upon the virgin, red and
white,
but I have dark rings under my eyes.


The Portrait

For my little songs,
those curious laments, those sunset-colored
ones,
spring offered me a shore bird's egg.

I bade my lover paint my portrait on the thick
shell.
He painted a young bulb in brown soil -
and, on the other side, a round soft mound
of earth.

Hope some of you get a chance to read the whole booklet. Concise bio of the poet is included.

Carpe Verve, all

Re: To all on PFray
by Eljem
Thank You, Bratsche.

Elj
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