While awake...

Some of the most meaningful poems I have ever read were written by the wonderful Swedish poet Karin Boye. There was a time when I consumed poetry like, like I today consume NRO or Drudge! Hm, makes me wonder if I have regressed...

Actually I really miss that time spent reading and pondering about what each line meant. Karin Boye managed to write poetry that I could reread, and love more each time I read it. That is close to unheard of for me. I am impatient, and prefer to read through things only once (unless I will get graded for something!). It would be unfair to pick one single poem that I like the best, but instead many of them mean a lot to me. That too is close to unheard of for me. In fact, I try to convert everyone or anyone who cares for poetry to read Karin Boye's work. There are a few translations around, but the Swedish original is plain, direct, and purely true. My sister scored major points when she one Christmas gave me a collection of Boye's poems. One of the poems is posted on our fridge is called 'On the Move' ('I Rörelse')


I rörelse

Den mätta dagen, den är aldrig störst.
Den bästa dagen är en dag av törst.

Nog finns det mål och mening i vår färd -
men det är vägen, som är mödan värd.

Det bästa målet är en nattlång rast,
där elden tänds och brödet bryts i hast.

På ställen, där man sover blott en gång,
blir sömnen trygg och drömmen full av sång.

Bryt upp, bryt upp! Den nya dagen gryr.
Oändligt är vårt stora äventyr.

Karin Boye (Härdarna)

Edit:
I forgot one thing. It might help if you read these poems somewhere in Scandinavia during springtime. That's all...