Thoughts on the Churchyard and the Resting Places of the Dead (translated by C. H. Sisson)

for Kurt Ostberg

1
Where am I now? Is this the ground
In which humility may flower?
Is there refreshment to be found
For those who knew in busier hours
The heat and burden of the day?
And bore the frost of bitter nights
And in the midst of hurts and slights
Took up their share of care and pain?

2
Where am I? Here are the narrow plots
Which hide within their pregnant wombs
What has been sown there by the God
Who can wake corpses from their tombs.
Where some see splendour, I see fear.
Not for me the Hesperides
Or Babylonian luxuries;
...