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    SOME HEARTS ARE TREASURES

    Some hearts are treasures
    that never can be done.
    Their owners strew them generously
    out in streams of sun.
    Gratefully we take
    the gift in cautious hand.
    Hail and happy, blessed one,
    who handles gold like sand!

    Some hearts are fires
    that burn deep below.
    In coldest night thrown there
    a reflection on the snow.
    Enchanted thus, no one
    in constant longing burns
    as he that sees that shimmer one night
    and forth to the fire yearns.


    Translated into English by David McDuff in "Karin Boye: Complete poems".

    Swedish original



    Copyright © 2005:
    Translation from Swedish into English: David McDuff
    Swedish original: Ulf Boye

    Published with the permission of:
    David McDuff, translation.
    Ulf Boye, copyright of the Swedish original.
    May and Hans Mehlin, Layout.

    For more information, please visit the website of David McDuff and his own pages with the translations.