Hope
I want to let go -
so I don't give a damn about fine writing,
I'm rolling my sleeves up.
The dough's rising...
Oh what a shame
I can't bake cathedrals...
that sublimity of style
I've always yearned for...
Child of our time -
haven't you found the right shell for your soul?
Before I die I *shall*
bake a cathedral.
Commentary
isn’t this a great little poem? i think you can almost feel the range of emotions sodergran expresses, emotions anyone who has pursued an elusive dream can identify with. you want to just give it all up, your every effort is frustrated, you’re almost there… if you could only… - and you feel all of this at the same time!
i think all of us need a little hope in our lives. even if it’s “false”.
someday, i shall bake a cathedral…
-v
editing notes: the *’s around ‘shall’ in the last line are only there because i couldn’t reproduce the italics. but the ellipses are actually in the verse. i have to wonder whether the original nordic verse had them. i don’t like them or their placement much, but after thinking about it, perhaps they do work to visually reinforce the notion of ‘hope’.
about the poet: edith sodergran was a swedish poet, who wrote in the early 1900’s.
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Matias Dahlback HF01 · 6 December 2002
Citerat från Martin Julian DeMello :
Actually Edith was a Finn-Swedish poet, that is, she lived in Finland but her native tongue was Swedish. She also wrote poems in Russian, perhaps also in Finnish, but that I cannot say for sure.
Dave Peraza · 7 December 2002
Truly great. I like the ellipses. They seem perfectly placed; indicating a thought that trails off (I don’t see it as indicating ‘hope’). And their absence on the last line “Before I die I shall bake a cathedral.” helps communicate determination and commitment.
-Dave
hirsiaho · 8 December 2002
Hi! Brilliant that you have included Edith on the list! But just a correction: Edith Sodergran was a Finnish poet writing in Swedish. She died alone and young in tuberculosis in Carelia, which is now a part of Russia. There are two translated collections in English, I have somewhere the worse one “Violent Twilights”, a newer one is fab but I cannot remember its name.
I have never seen this dough poem, although I thought I had read her production through.
Anu Hirsiaho
Finn from Toronto
Johanna · 16 December 2003
I really really and truly want to find a book by Edith Sodergran in English! She’s my ultimate idol and I’ve been struggling to get any info of her books I could find in the UK. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!
Thank you very much!
I’m glad Anu corrected the fact that Edith was a Finnish poet!
All the best everyone!
Johanna
Finn in Bristol/UK
FINN FILM · 6 January 2004
Perhaps the following link will help you find some of Edith Sodergran’s works in English:
[broken link] http://www.sitescrape.com/bn/book/HAGAR.html
Here’s a photo of Edith as well - what a beautiful Finn:
[broken link] http://commerce.prodigybiz.com/Customer/F/FILM/images/Edith_Sodergran_origin al.jpg
Lee Mamunes · 17 January 2006
Reminds me of an American poet who also liked to bake bread, and who also was in a race for time because, like Sodergran, she was tubercular – Emily Dickinson. George Mamunes