Scandinavian poetry, part five

-photo by saara

A beautiful poem
by the norwegian author and painter Stein Mehren (born 1935)


I hold your head
 
I hold your head
in my hands, as you hold
my heart in your affection
as everything holds and is
held by something other than itself
As the sea lifts a stone
to its strands, as the tree
holds the ripe fruit of autumn, as
the world is lifted through worlds and space
So are we both held by something and lifted
to where mystery holds mystery in its hand
 
From MOT EN VERDEN AV LYS, 1963.
Translation is by Elizabeth Rokka.