Axe is needed to cut wood;
Love is to cut a heart.

Neath this tall pine,
That to the zephyr sways and murmurs low,
Mayst thou recline,
While near thee cooling waters flow.
This flute of mine
Shall pipe the softest song it knows to sing,
And to thy charmèd eyelids sleep will bring.

Run and run towards deliverance
And find and gather everything
Deliverance and riches
Run so quickly the thread breaks
With the sound a great bird makes
A flag always soared beyond

Nature's a Sphinx. And her ordeal
Is all the more destructive to mankind
Because, perhaps, she has no riddle.
Nor did she ever have one.

Either tortoises live long lives because they don’t hurry

or they don’t hurry because they live long lives.

Natten lang
Dands og Sang
Til Musik og Bægerklang!"
Det for Dig er Livets Gang.

Napping at midday
I hear the song of rice planters
and feel ashamed of myself.


Translated by Robert Hass

Napped half the day;
no one
punished me!


Translated by Robert Hass

'What is the world, O soldiers?
It is I:
I, this incessant snow,
This northern sky;
Soldiers, this solitude
Through which we go
Is I.'

Vaager jeg — er det mit jordiske Liv;
Drømmer jeg — er det min Vellyst ublandet;
Døer jeg — hvad er det da? — Skaberens andet
Atter af Intet mig kaldende Bliv.