Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Tomas Traströmer / Allegro


Allegro
by Tomas Tranströmer
Translated by Robert Bly



After a black day, I play Haydn,
and feel a little warmth in my hands.
The keys are ready. Kind hammers fall.
The sound is spirited, green, and full of silence.
The sound says that freedom exists
and someone pays no tax to Caesar.
I shove my hands in my haydnpockets
and act like a man who is calm about it all.
I raise my haydnflag. The signal is:
We do not surrender. But want peace.”
The music is a house of glass standing on a slope;
rocks are flying, rocks are rolling.
The rocks roll straight through the house
but every pane of glass is still whole.

The Winged Energy of Delight: Selected Translations
by Robert Bly, published by Harper Collins, 2004





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