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  • ‘Samtal i natten på verandan…’
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‘Samtal i natten på verandan…’

Claes-Johan Rudolf Andersson

Samtal i natten på verandan, cigaretternas
lysmaskar, vinet svart i glasen. Vi säger
ingenting just, inneslutna i den tystnad
som uppstår ur många års vånskap och ensamhet.
Några läderlappar yr förbi bakom glasrutorna
som vore de vära döda vänners förrymda själar
som velat stanna kvar här där livet var helt.


Claes-Johan Rudolf Andersson

Reproduced by permission of the author and translators.

Tags:

Finnish French friendship ghosts night Translations

Translations of this Poem

'Talk in the night on the porch...'

Translator: Rika Lesser


Talk in the night on the porch, the cigarettes’
glowworms, the wine black in our glasses. We say
nothing much, ringed by the silence
arising from many years’ friendship and aloneness.
A few bats flit past behind the panes
as if they were our dead friends’ souls broken free
having chosen to remain here where life was whole.

'Quelques paroles dans la nuit sous la véranda...'

Translator: Gabriel Rebourcet


Quelques paroles dans la nuit sous la véranda, le ver
luisant des cigarettes, le vin est noir dans les verres.
Nous ne disons rien au juste, enfouis dans le silence
qui sourd de tant d’années d’amitié, de solitude.
Quelque chauve-souris frôlent les vitres de la fenêtre
comme si l’âme envolée de nos amis défunts
voulait revenir ici où la vie est entière.

About this poem

translation into English © Rika Lesser from What Became Words  (Sun & Moon Press, 1996)

translation into French © Gabriel Rebourcet from Charbon du Jour (Riveneuve, 2000)

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Claes-Johan Rudolf Anderssonb.1937

Claes-Johan Rudolf Andersson  b. 1937 in Helsinki is a Finland-Swedish psychiatrist, author, musician, politician and former member of the  Finnish Parliament.
More about Claes-Johan Rudolf Andersson

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