Books from Finland - A literary journal of writing from and about Finland.

Poems From Skorpionin sydän (‘The scorpion’s heart’, WSOY, 1997). Introduction by Jyrki Kiiskinen

Earth’s hot womb brought to a boil
the grain ripens

among your golden chaff
and sharp awns
you walk and listen

Death
        The Stranger
here it found a place, 

its dark apartments glittered
 the dead
perfumed, trembled

and now
through the small cremation hatch
you see
see how the coffin thunderously
flares, disappears
in elemental fire

*

My Child My Almond Eye
                   Do not be afraid

I too am afraid

Everyone in turn steps out
into his yard
eyes pierced for a moment, seeing

*

Brains, tenderly scooped out into the light

body,
immersed in a mountain of salt,
swaddled

now guarded by
a clay figure, spear in hand, Time?
(its rotting strength loved only by the fruit,
the tasty pyramid of its secret seeds)

body soul! game of hide and seek, waiting
(noble pile of bones)

Nefertiti ‘s nocturnal gaze
unblinking
open

*

In a room with a number
an unknown
sterilized room

        close to the North Star

my son fights, sleeps

Blind, people’s hands
                 gently touch my heart,
my city has a name,
         it is empty

The swans, I ask, up on the hill

the swans,
with their heavy wing- beat
lighting up our faces for a moment,
the swans,
have they already left

Translated by Anselm Hollo