Saturday, July 4, 2015

Ocean By Olav H. Hauge


Ocean 
by Olav H. Hauge

This is the ocean.
Vast and gray,
gravity itself.
Yet just as the mind
in solitary moments
suddenly opens
its shifting reflections
to secret depths---
so the ocean
one blue morning
can open itself
to sky and solitude.
See, the ocean gleams,
I, too, have stars
and blue depths.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Don't Come to Me With the Entire Truth
by Olav H. Hauge

Don't come to me with the entire truth.
Don't bring the ocean if I feel thirsty,
nor heaven if I ask for light;
but bring a hint, some dew, a particle,
as birds carry drops away from a lake,
and the wind a grain of salt.

From: "The Dream We Carry" Selected and Last Poems of Olav H. Hauge
Translated by Robert Bly and Robert Hedin

2 comments:

erin said...

such truth in that last poem especially)))

i don't know olav hauge but i trust bly.

xo
erin

Marion said...

Erin, I thought I read one of his poems at your place! I have one book of his and it melted my heart with its 'thereness' and strong sense of place. He is Norwegian and lived on the same small farm his entire life. In the Preface Bly said, "What is it like to spend your whole life as a poet on a farm with no support from your family or from the community? It would be lonely..." This grabbed my heart and I immediately identified with him, being a poet in a family who is ignorant of poetry. Every poem is a bell rung that reverberates long after you read it. The book title is, "The Dream We Carry". A fine, fine, moving book of poetry. Love to you. xo