By Edith Södergran
(In two translations from Swedish to English.)
Version 1
Strange fishes glide in the depths,
unfamiliar flowers glow on the shore;
I have seen red and yellow and all the other colours, –
but the gaudy gay sea is the most dangerous to look upon,
it makes one thirsty and wide-awake for waiting adventures:
what happened in the fairy-tale will happen also to me!
Version 2
Implausible fish bloom in the depths,
mercurial flowers light up the coast;
I know red and yellow, the other colors,—
but the sea, det granna granna havet, that’s most dangerous
to look at.
What name is there for the color that arouses
this thirst, which says,
the saga can happen, even to you—
Translated from the Swedish by Averill Curdy
Kelly,
While looking for help with a line from the Sodergran poem “Strange sea,” I stumbled across the two translations in your column. And the perspective I from the two made the piece clear to me. Thank you.
I run a monthly column in the Harpers Ferry newsletter (I was appointed Poet Laureate
here) and would like to feature a poem of yours, if Imay. 10 lines or fewer work best, and I serve readers of a general type.
Yours,
George