THE AVENGING ANGEL SPEAKS
Give me the dead part of your life.
I will be sure to wake it.
The nights wait for our pastime.
We will be sure to break it.
Though your day was so bloodlessly empty,
I can compel it to bleed,
compel it, in shame and judgement,
to rise up from the dead.
So, when day dawns and again you take hold,
you will see what you have earned,
you will see the mark of a living night
into your temple burned -
witness that the time you wanted to cheat
from mercy back you have got
and got it full to its flowing brim -
whether torment or joy, matters not.
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.