MARSH WANDERER


Dark is my land.
Wanderer, who are you?
Marsh wanderer!
Blind lies my land.
Wanderer, who are you?
I feel footprints fill themselves
with blood from my inner self. 
I would like to know your hands.
If they are of fire that burns,
let me feel it.
I would like to know your hands.
If they are like cool leaves,
then stroke them over the trees' pain
and let the dead awake.
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.