13 11 / 2011
Historical portraits of the Palestinian people (4)
The trees of my childhood stand tall in the grass
and shake their heads: what has become of you?
Rows of pillars stand like accusations: unworthy you walk beneath us!
You’re a child and should know everything,
why are you caught in the trap of illness?
You’ve become a human being, strange, hateful.
When you were a child, you conducted long conversations with us, your gaze was wise.
Now we’d like to tell you your life’s secret:
the key to all secrets is in the grass on the hill of raspberries.
Sleeper, we wanted to rattle you,
we wanted to wake you, you dead one, from you sleep.
- Edith Södergran, Finland, 1892-1923
Translated by Malena Mörling and Jonas Ellerström
Do you ever feel like this? About lost innocence? Maybe it’s romantic and idealistic but I imagine before the occupation little childen conducted long conversations with the land and the trees, before the sound of drones drowned out the chatter.
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