Excerpts from
Secular Songs
By Tom Kristensen
Grass
The grass is strangely tall to me,
lying with my nose to the earth.
If I bow down as low as I can
my world grows high.
Under the pointed greenish gates
I stop. Here I shall stay.
I dare not lose my way
in the shining dark!
I dare not lose
my way among straw!
Inside the dawning halls of the straws
there is a voice waking, calling
in rising notes: comest thou now,
comest thou, comest thou, comest thou now,
thou now.
And as answer
sounds a bright
full of delight boyish bright voice in me:
No, oh not yet! No, oh not yet!
But when my madness is gone,
when my dreams of greatness are gone,
then I shall come, then I shall come,
then IŽll be small and happy enough.
From Contemporary Danish Poetry, An Anthology
Gyldendal, Denmark / Twayne Publishers, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A, 1977
Translated by Poul Borum
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