I sometimes wish, I would go blind
Untouchable from the darkness
Finding that only path to walk
Guided by an invisible beacon inside
A shepherd holding on to his rod
I wish I could have that blind
Faith
Svensk version / Swedish version
Önskar ibland, jag kunde bli blind
Onåbar av mörkret
Vandrande den enda vägen
Vägledd av ett inre ljus
En herde som håller i sin stav
Önskar jag kunde hitta den blinda
Tron
What’s never challenged cannot grow, ha de Gött!
The world is full of lost hopes.
Grab one as you pass by.
Root it, in your heart.
Nurture it, let it grow.
Spread it out, like branches.
As a leaf silently falling.
Hope is never truly lost.
Swedish version.
Hopp
Världen är full av förlorat hopp.
Plocka upp ett när du passerar.
Låt det slå rot, i ditt hjärta.
Vårda det, låt det växa.
Bred ut det, likt trädgrenar.
Som ett löv tyst faller.
Är hoppet aldrig helt förlorat.
Just hold on to it, ha de Gött!
In our time,
We have none
Too precious to waste,
Rushes past us,
Do we rush past it?
The only thing we have in abundance,
Until it leaves us behind.
An illusion of the past,
Chasing an unknown future.
Live!
Here and now,
Worrying about the future,
Is paying interest
On loans not yet received.
Each day has enough
Of its own troubles.
Our best time is now, is now, is now!
Tick, tock, ha de Gött!
Written and recited by yours truly at our choir summer concert on the Swedish National Day, 6 June 2025.
Endlessly moulding
Elements flow
Freely
To see what, today
Can become, tomorrow
The universe strive
To chaotic order
Floating
Like grain of sand
Through the fingers
Of God
Svensk version (Swedish version)
Skulpterar
Oupphörligt formar
Elementen flödar
Fritt
För att se vad, idag
Kan bli, imorgon
Universums strävan
Mot kaotisk ordning
Flödar
Likt sandkorn
Genom fingrarna
På Gud
Are we not, only a grain of sand in the universe? Ha de Gött!
Lyckan
Satt på gyllene pedistal.
Jagar vi och tillber vi den.
Driver oss i olycka.
Men lycka är bara en biprodukt.
Av given du fått.
Och hur du spelar den.
Happiness
Sat on a golden pedestal.
We chase and worship it.
Drives us into misery.
But happiness is just a by-product.
Of the hand you’ve been dealt.
And how you play it.
I’m H. A. P. P. Y, I’m sure I am, I know I am. Ha de Gött!
English version below.
Mörkret tränger sig på.
Ljuset fladdrar i människors hjärtan,
hoppas att stormen drar förbi.
Ur rädslor väller svart rök,
döljer hoppets ljus.
Blinda tittar vi på.
Glada att inte vi, behöver utstå smärtan,
inte jag, någon annan måste det bli.
Darrar under skuggans hök,
vallas till grus.
English version
The darkness presses in.
The light flickers in people's hearts,
hoping the storm will pass.
From fears, black smoke pours,
hiding the light of hope.
Blindly we watch.
Glad that it's not us, who must endure the pain,
not me, it must be someone else.
Trembling under the shadow's hawk,
herded to dust.
Still believe in the light, ha de Gött!
Ghosts
shadows, in a wink of the eye,
chased, by the obduracy of time,
flickering, by like ghosts,
Spöken
skuggor, i en blinkning,
jagade, av tidens obeveklighet,
flimrar, förbi som spöken,
All that counts is how did you love, ha de Gött!
My absolute favourite Swedish poet is Gustaf Fröding (1860 – 1911). This brilliant poet and author’s short life was darkened with mental illness. Both his own and his parents. Perhaps this is evidence that brilliance and folly dances on a razor sharp edge.
He is still a popular poet in Sweden. The poems are highly musical and lends itself to musical setting. He is one the poets with the highest number of his poems that have been set to music. Many of them topping the charts for weeks on.
Many of his brilliant poems are written in the melodic dialect from his home province Värmland. In my mind the most beautiful Swedish dialect. Even if a person with this dialect is really angry with you it sounds like a declaration of love. The dialect is often a challenge to understand by Swedish speakers and then to translate to English!
Even so an Englishman named Mike McArthur took on the task with Frödings most loved poems. He did an excellent job and to that I’m glad to be able to share one of the poems in English. This poem was a great comfort to me when I lost my son four years ago.
Solace
When comes deep sorrow, as when night descending
in wildest forests, where man goes astray,
who trusts the glimmer, which ahead is wending,
the light that peeps out, flickers, hides away?
In fun it flickered, in fun fled this caper,
who takes a Jack o'lantern for a taper?
No, grieve till in the brain the numbness creeping
in weary torpor, is the solace found
- just like the wanderer, who was lost and sleeping
of soft and mossy down, a sleep so sound.
And when from misty depths he wakes from dreaming,
sees in the wooded hide the morn sun gleaming.
There is a Fröding society that published this as a year book in 2023. You can find them on the web here. Only in Swedish, but Google translate or Chat GPT can help. Seems this is the only way to get a copy of this book. You can also find out more on Wikipedia where there are some links to more of his works in English.
Ha de Gött!
UlleHaddock 