Colors your eye cannot see

JUST BEFORE SPRING

There in the freezing morning
hangs a sound that soon will thaw.
The quiet is almost ripe,
opening like a seed.

In this air there are colors
your eye cannot see.
They wait like depths in the expanse
over the blind snow.

Quiet. Don’t speak yet.
Don’t start anything.
One more drop of silence
and the air will be full of song.

LIGE FOR FORÅR

Der står i den frysende morgen
en tone der snart vil to.
Om lidt er stilheden moden
og åbner sig som et frø.

I denne lift er der farver
dot øje ikke kan se.
De venter som dybder i rummet
over den blinde sne.

Stille. Vent med at tale.
Sæt ikke noget i gang.
En dråbe stilhed mere
og luften er fuld af sang.

Benny Andersen
from
Something To Live Up To
Selected Poems
translated from Danish by
Michael Goldman

New Year’s Eve. At 4pm the streets of Edinburgh are already thronged with tens of thousands come to bid goodbye to an old year, and welcome to the new. For many, tonight will be a poignant celebration of hope, of longing, and yes, of myriad forms of prayer.

Can we dare to hope for something new?

To my great joy I’ve been introduced, towards the end of 2023, to the writings of the late and much revered Danish poet, Benny Andersen. I hope to walk with him awhile in 2024 – and in his Just Before Spring lies an apposite message for an upcoming new year …

I denne lift er der farver
dot øje ikke kan se.

In this air there are colors
your eye cannot see.

In the chill night air of this and other cities around the world, amid ‘Auld lang syne’ and fireworks, hugs and hopes, kisses and wishes, the poet suggests that we have not yet seen all the beauty that remains to be seen. Something glorious and hope-filled, something reconciling and restorative, something just the other side of snowy silence, something even now ‘opening like a seed,’ lies before us – and we may play a quiet part in bringing a new flowering, a new singing, into the night, and into the light. ‘One more drop of silence and the air will be full of song.’

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