Olga Berggoltz

Wake as you want, but wake in me from sleep –
In cold, and numb and bottomless a deep.

I do not dream to say a single word,
But give a sign that you are in this world.

Not for a long, but only for a flash.
If not in verse – in sighs or cries of flesh.

Only your sigh or moan of complaint,
Only your chains’ incomprehensive chant.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, March, 2002