RIPE AS A FRUIT

Ripe as a fruit the world lies in my lap,
it ripened last night,
and its rind is the thin blue membrane that stretches
                                       bubble-round,
and its juice is the sweet and fragrant, streaming, burning     
                                       torrent of sunlight.

And out into the transparent universe I leap like a swimmer,
submerged in a baptism of ripeness and born to a power of       
                                       ripeness.
Consecrated to action,
light as a burst of laughter
I cleave a golden sea of honey that desires my hungry hands.

Translated into English by David McDuff in "Karin Boye: Complete poems".

Swedish original

For more information, please visit the website of David McDuff and his own pages with the translations.