The Starry Night

Needless suffering,
needless waiting,
the world is empty as your laugh.
Hidden stars unfold -
cold and glorious night.
Love smiles in her sleep,
love dreams of eternity -
Needless fear, needless pain,
the world is smaller than the
	smallest thing,
down in the deep from love's
	own hand
slips eternity's ring.
Edith Södergran, translated by: Gounil Brown

Gounil Brown’s Translations

Gounil Brown is a renowned translator of 20th Century Swedish poetry, most famous for her translations of Edith Södergran (1892 - 1923). Södergran was born in St Petersburg in 1892 to Swedish Parents. Her father died from tuberculosis in 1907 and while she was still in her teens, Edith herself was diagnosed with the disease. It was while battling with her advancing illness that she published, between 1916 and 1920, five volumes of poetry and other writings. It has been said of her poetry that it is a plea for individuality, intuition and feeling. Gounil said of Södergran’s poems that ‘there is an ecstatic element in many of her poems, and a feeling that they have been written by a nature-spirit, an imp, a wood-nymph or a mischievous angel… She is truly a world poet whose unique song deserves to be heard in these troubled times’. Michael Henry Birch has said of Gounil Brown’s translations of Södergran’s poems that: ‘Södergran compelled me gently to accompany her most of the way without question, a thing I am rarely prepared to do with other poets’.

Read sample poems
by Edith Södergran
translated by Gounil Brown:

The song in the mountain
The Starry Night
Evening

Publications

My Poems & My Translations.
Gounil Brown
Icon Press
ISBN 1873812132

Poems by Edith Södergran.
Translated by Gounil Brown
Icon Press
ISBN 1873812035

Links:

Poet  | Translator |  Artist |  Biography

Icon Press
Wikipedia: Edith Södergran

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