Finnish Poets

On the day of Finland's centennial celebration, December 6, 2017, we had a celebration in Duluth at the Depot. Over 600 people attended to appreciate Finland's culture and independence. We also enjoyed good food, visual art, music. Many Finnish immigrants settled in Minnesota. My grandparents arrived in the early 1900s.  At the event, I read these poems as way to acknowledge the sources of inspiration that continue to feed my writing.  

Eeva-Liisa Manner  

ASSIMILATION 

I will show you a way 

that I have travelled. 

If you come 

If you come back some day 

searching for me 

do you see how everything shifts 

a little every moment 

and becomes less pretentious 

and more primitive 

(like pictures drawn by children 

or early forms of life: 

the soul's alphabet) 

you will come to a warm region 

it is soft and hazy 

but then I will no longer be me, 

but the forest. 

_________

MOTHER TONGUES by Kirsti Simonsuuri

There came a distant cool loneliness

without the hell of others

I spoke alone in all tongues

I forged keys to secret languages:

fresh water, Latin

sweet strawberry, Finnish.

My silence was as deep

as once in the womb.

__________

GROUND-ICE by Helvi Juvonen

My joy is made of ground-ice.

It does not melt.

A vein of water runs deep,

inexhaustible,

the spring shimmers

over my silver ice

clear as glass.

You see my ice.

Do not touch.

After all it is cold,

spring water.

Look.

You see a human face,

you see your own,

a good face.

IN THIS LIFE by Helvi Juvonen

I tell of an enduring summer,

streams that do not run out,

trees that do not shed their leaves,

land on which grass does not wilt.

In that land, the land of which I sing,

ravens fly, bringing food.

In that land, the land of which I sing,

there is always a hand for a human hand.

My friends, the chosen few,

I’m telling you

of truth’s enduring summer.

From Pohjajäätä [‘Ground-ice’], 1952)

_______

Poem by Risto Rasa 

Niin kuin aalto uittaa aallon 

yli valtameren, 

niin selviydymme mekin 

toinen toisiamme tukien. 

Just as one wave carries another wave

Across the ocean,

So we, too, survive

One supporting the other. 

_________

Älä elämää pelkää’ by Kaarlo Sarkia

Don’t be afraid of life,

don’t shut out its beauty.

Invite it to sit by your fire,

or should your hearth expire,

to meet it outside is your duty.

Do not ever say:

this is mine alone.

Drink from life’s cup

and once again give its pain up.

If you never beg to own,

the world’s riches are yours today.

Be bold, stake all on one card:

ahead you’ll always see death’s gate unbarred.

– – –

Älä elämää pelkää,

älä sen kauneutta kiellä.

Suo sen tupaasi tulla

tai jos liettä ei sulla,

sitä vastaan käy tiellä,

älä käännä sille selkää.

Älä koskaan sano:

‘Tämä on iäti minun.’

Elon maljasta juovu,

taas siitä, jos tarpeen, kivutta luovu.

On maailman rikkaus sinun,

kun mitään et omakses ano.

Elä pelotta varassa yhden kortin:

näet aina avoinna kuoleman portin.

Translated by David McDuff