Some poems

Night song

Say, when breaks the morning
when I can wake up lightly?
Say, when lowers the evening,
when I can gladly fall?

Say, do you know when will come
Christmas and candles?
Say, when will disappear the ghosts
which walk behind me?

Don't fear! I am not crying.
I haven't been crying for years.
But for years I have slept
and believed in dreams.

And if one sleeping dream failed me,
I believed in a new one;
but the most beautiful dream of beautiful dreams
were you, girl - and my last.

I thought that you were the morning,
when I could wake up easily,
i believed you were the evening
when I could fall asleep gladly.

I dreamed my Christmas had come
with Christman trees and candles,
I thought ghosts had vanished
and gone the forest nights.

I already thought I was a human being,
not forever a dreamer,
I already thought I was happy -
not just a poet of happiness.

See, a human has joys and sorrows
and human feels and lives.
But a singer wanders and listens
and in his ears music sings.

And the music sings, sings days
and nights, he hears it from a distance, so far away.
And a singer wanders and listens
and he hears and - sings.


Eino Leino  (My translation)


If I would comment to the poem: it sounds clishee like but is somehow better, more profound. Instead of just clishes it mentions feelings which make the experience of life deeper and healthier. While touching misery it finds a solution that usually works: dreaming. From that the poet continues to making dreams real at the level of life in the practise: "you, girl" and with dedication. But he knows that supposing something isn't the same as things being so, so his views stay on a solid ground. And while in some foreign lands peope would have emphasized art, he emphasizes life and a human being, so practical and healthy, with many kinds of feelings and multitude of things in days, that it sings in itself. And as the culmination of such wisdom of life a sense of music born of how the world sings, how the wisest choises sing in some profound deeply touching natural music of life, and so he lives naturally and expresses his life as a song too - which need not be of a certain form, it can be a description of how he came to write poems.

* * *

When I remember -

When i remember how many evenings
I have sat alone, alone,
and watched the stars of the sky,
which glimmer side by side,
so my girl,
my girl, oh,
close to you I need to come
and look at you long, so long.

When I remember how many travels
I have wandered in the forests,
I have sat under thick needle trees
and sat without joys,
oh my girl,
so my girl,
I need to kiss you long
and cry, cry quietly.

 When I remember how many thoughts
I have trhought evil there,
which we could have avoided together
and won by cooperation,
so my girl,
oh, my girl,
you need to love me a lot
and love long, oh long.

Eino Leino  (My translation)


* * *

Which one is more beautiful

Whih one is more beautiful:
believe that freedom comes,
hope that light wins,
and fight for light, -
or fight
knowing that light does not win,
knowing that freedom does not win,
and still fight.

Which one is more beautiful:
to think: if freedom does not win,
to ponder: if light does not come to rule,
why do I fight then?
Or to think:
I am a child of sunset, not of sunrise,
I am a man of light, if not of victory,
that's why I need to break.

Eino Leino  (My translation)

My comment: Things are called good because they are good for some purpose, for example for making life better. Also wisdom is typically called good. So light isn't on the way to disappearing from the world. Quite contrary: as technology develops, it gets more complex and demands better thinking ability. Likewise globalization encourages to think of the wide world and avoid the error of tunnel-sightedness which is a typical reason for evil. About my objective views on the role of moral and feelings and ages old healthy natural ways of living in the tough modern world, please see my book http://www.angelfire.com/planet/paradisewins/2013paradise.rtf  .