Download document

LEINO, Eino


Peace

What is this fragrance around me?

What is this quietness?

What is this knowledge of peace in my heart?

What strange, great, new thing is this?

I can hear the flowers growing

and the talk of the trees in the wood.

I think all my old dreams are ripening,

all the hopes and the wishes I sowed.

Everything’s quiet around me,

Everything’s gentle and sweet.

Great flowers are opening up in my heart

with a fragrance of deepest peace.


Nocturne

The corncrake's song rings in my ears,

above the rye a full moon sails;

this summer night all sorrow clears

and woodsmoke drifts along the dales,

I do not laugh or grieve, or sigh;

the forest's darkness breathes nearby,

the red of clouds where day sinks deep,

the blue of windy hills asleep,

the twinflower's scent, the water's shade--

of these my heart's own song is made.

You, girl as sweet as summer hay,

my heart's great peace, I sing to you,

O my devotion, tune and play

a wreath of oak twigs, green and new.

I have stopped chasing Jack-o'-Lantern,

I hold gold from the Demon's mountain;

around me life tightens its ring,

time stops, the vane has ceased to swing;

the road before me through the gloom

is leading to the unknown room.

- translated by Keith Bosley