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    WALPURGIS NIGHT

     

    At last I stand near the mountain of the fates.
    All around like stormclouds crowd formless beings, creatures of the twilight,
    black-winged,
    phosphorous-eyed.
    Shall I stay? Shall I go? The road lies dark.
    If I stay peacefully here at the foot of the mountain,
    then no one will touch me.
    Calmly I can see their struggle like a play of the mist in the air, myself merely a lost eye.
    But if I go, if I go, then I shall know nothing more.
    For the one who takes those steps
    life becomes legend.

    Myself fire
    I shall ride on coiling snakes of fire.
    Myself wind
    I shall fly on winged wind-dragons.
    Myself nothing,
    myself lost in the storm
    I shall fling myself forth dead or living, a fate future-heavy.


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

    Swedish original



    Copyright © 2005:
    Translation from Swedish into English: David McDuff

    Published with the permission of:
    David McDuff, translation.
    May and Hans Mehlin, Layout.

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

     
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