Edith Södergran: Selected Poems of 1916

by Edith Södergran, David Barrett (Translator)

A selection of 32 poems from Edith Södergran's 1916 collection, Dikter, in a new English translation.

This work also includes the original Swedish texts of the poems, each directly accessible from its translation.

Genres: Poetry

76 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2011

About the author

Edith Irene Södergran was a Swedish-speaking Finnish poet.

Södergran was born in St Petersburg in 1892. In 1907 Edith's father died from tuberculosis, and in the following year Edith was also diagnosed with the disease. She was sent to a sanatorium, but did not feel at ease there. The feelings of captivity caused by the disease and the sanatorium are a recurring theme in her poetry.

In October 1911, Edith and her mother traveled to Arosa in Switzerland where Edith was examined by different doctors. After a few months, she was transferred to the Davos-Dorf sanatorium. In May 1912, her condition had improved enough for her to return home. Eventually, the disease returned and Edith Södergran died in 1923 in her home in Raivola. She was 31 years old.

Reviews

[Mashiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that this small volume has every poem in English and Swedish, as my Swedish is at the lower limit needed for Edith Södergran's poems. The English translations rarely capture the original vibrancy of the poems for me, though.