Friday, October 25, 2013

THE SNOW WHIRLS OVER THE COURTYARD’S ROSES


The snow whirls over the courtyard’s roses.
Didn’t bring my boots and scarf, leafing
through books, don’t know what to do with all this light!
You wouldn’t approve of the colours.
It’s too striking, Andrei Asenyevich, too
much, too much of everything!
You exchanged the wings for an aerial balloon, a clumsy
creation cobbled together from rope and rags, I remember so well.
Before, I had a lot and didn’t remember. Difficult
to stick to the subject. Difficult to stick to the subject.
Hope to return. Hope to return to the principle
of wings. The fact remains: the freeze preserved
the rose garden last night. “The zone is a zone, the zone is life,
and a person can either be ruined or survive when
she makes her way through this life. Whether she makes it or
not depends on her sense of self-esteem –” A hare
almost hopped into the entrance hall here at the Foundation,
mottled against the snow; it’s October in the hare’s calendar.
You seem to be a moody sort of person
and it’s possible that none of this is of interest to you.
On the other hand, you yourself complain fairly often.
I’m writing because you are dead and because I woke up
last spring in my streetside hotel room in Benidorm to that wonderful
high twittering. One shouldn’t constantly say one is sorry, one should
not constantly give thanks, one should definitely give thanks. Lake
Mälaren like lead down there. The rest is white and red.


© 1997, Tua Forsström

From: I studied once at a wonderful faculty
Publisher: Bloodaxe, Tarset, 1996

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I simply adore this poem, in Finnish especially translated by Timo Hämäläinen. Send in some roses and some crispy air too.