Now it is fall
By Edith Sodergran
Translated from the Swedish by Averill Curdy
when all the golden birds
fly home across the blue deep water;
On shore I sit rapt in its scattering
glitter;
departure rustles through the trees.
This farewell is vast and separation draws close,
but reunion, that also is certain.
My head on my arm I fall asleep easily.
On my eyes a mother’s breath,
from her mouth to my heart:
sleep, child, and dream now the sun is gone.—
--
Same poem, now with my annotations and analysis:
Now it is fall
By Edith Sodergran
Translated from the Swedish by Averill Curdy
when all the golden this particular adjective is fabulous - evokes the beauty and richness of summer birds
fly home across the blue deep maybe would have been smoother if flipped...maybe kept this way to stay true to the translation? water;
On shore I sit rapt in its scattering
glitter;
departure rustles lovely personification through the trees.
This farewell is vast and separation draws close nostalgia, sadness from having to be apart,
but reunion, that also is certain. Immediate reassurance, contrast b/t the imminent farewell and the eventual reunion
My head on my arm I fall asleep easily.
On my eyes a mother’s breath,
from her mouth to my heart:
sleep, child, and dream now the sun is gone.hinting that the childlike innocence of summer? —
Now it is fall painted a nostalgic farewell to summer, not elegiac exactly (elegiac as in mournful, not as in the poetic term), but certainly with woeful undertones. The poem is short, and it was difficult for me to find the complexity in the two stanzas. I felt as if Sodergran hinted as the inevitability of maturation through the end of summer, but that's as far as I could reasonably conclude from the poem. Fellow AP Lit students, feel free to comment on your own feelings about the poem! :)
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