Welcome to Modern Finnish Writers!
The database includes the authors’ personal details and introduces their work. The sources selected for further reading are mainly web-based, but there are references to other documents as well. Some texts on these web pages have been especially written for the database by the authors. The English pages are not identical to the Finnish and Swedish ones, as they mainly focus on authors whose work has been translated into English.
We hope you enjoy your visit!
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This section is only in Finnish!
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IT IS YOU, YOU I LOVE
It is you, you I love.
Night wreathes my head in darkness
to keep me from seeing you.
How the birds break their wings!
How the waters roil under the rocks!
How the forests rise with the winds!
And the rain from the clouds turns to stone!
It is you, you I love.
Night wreathes my head in darkness
to keep me from seeing you.
How space cries out to me!
How the stars shriek through my temples!
How the children weep on the shores of the world!
And hearts burn and smoke above the seas!
It is you, you I love.
Your soft hand moves
like a boat on the river at dawn.
WHO COULD TELL ME?
Who could tell me why the pale moths
bloom on night's velvet skin?
Who could tell me?
When people go, silent and strange
with frosty, armored faces,
such frosty faces!
and eyes like a stuffed bird's.
Who could tell me why in the grass at dawn
the thrushes begin their secret game?
Who could tell me?
When at the gates stand dark soldiers
holding withered roses
such withered roses!
and broken orange lilies.
Who could tell me, quietly, in the sun's shade
how to undress my heart?
Who could tell me?
If you came to me across meadows
came close and gently
so gently!
opened the dress of my heart.
Translated by Anselm Hollo
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