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Moon and Apple

Rolf Jacobsen, Rolf Jacobsen poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry,  poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, Christian poetry by Rolf Jacobsen
(1907 - 1994) Timeline

English version by
Robert Bly

Original Language
Norwegian

Secular or Eclectic
Christian : Catholic
20th Century

When the apple tree blooms,
the moon comes often like a blossom,
paler than any of them,
shining over the tree.

It is the ghost of the summer,
the white sister of the blossoms who returns
to drop in on us,
and radiate peace with her hands
so that you shouldn't feel too bad when the hard times come.
For the Earth itself is a blossom, she says,
on the star tree,
pale with luminous
ocean leaves.

 

 

-- from The Winged Energy of Delight, Translated by Robert Bly

Amazon.com

 


/ Photo by Athena's Pix /

Themes

  Bower
  Moon
  Spring Blossom
  Tree
  Water


Recommended Books


Night Music: Selected Poems, by Rolf Jacobsen / Translated by Robert Hedin
Night Open: Selected Poems, by Rolf Jacobsen / Translated by Olav Grinde
North in the World: Selected Poems of Rolf Jacobsen, A Bilingual Edition, by Rolf Jacobsen / Translated by Roger Greenwald
The Roads Have Come to an End Now: Selected and Last Poems of Rolf Jacobsen, by Rolf Jacobsen / Translated by Robert Bly
The Winged Energy of Delight, Translated by Robert Bly

 

<<Previous Poem | More Poems by Rolf Jacobsen | Next Poem >>

Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

It's past the summer season of apple blossoms and even the autumn of ripe apples (or, for those of you south of the equator, it's much too early), but something about this poem spoke to me today. The blossoms of the apple tree glowing beneath the shining moon. And a reminder to us all that even when things seem difficult, the Earth itself -- and each one of us -- "is a blossom... on the star tree." If we are blossoms, that must mean we are quietly ripening with the season, and in the natural unfolding of things we will become sweet fruit in the cosmos.

 

 


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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
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