When I finished editing the panoramic image above, I heard the unforgettable verses of Eino Leino´s poem Nocturne echoing on my mind. The picture depicts so many ways the Finnish soul, just like the poem does, too. That’s why I think this pic fits perfectly to illustrate Nocturne, one of the most best-known poems of our national poet. Leino’s birthday has been declared also to “Day of Poetry and Summer”, so there are several excellent causes to celebrate today! 🙂
This landscape is also very dear to me personally. I grew up on the shores of the lake, listening to the cornbirds and falling asleep on the smell of Twinflowers..
Nocturne
I hear the evening cornbird calling.
Moonlight floods the fields of tasseled grain.
Wood smoke, drifting veils the distant valleys.
Summer evening’s joy is here for me.
I’m not happy yet no sorrow shakes me,
but the dark woods stillness I would welcome.
Rosy clouds through which the day is falling,
sleepy breezes from the blue gray mountains,
shodows on the water, meadow flowers…
out of these my heart’s own song I’ll make!
I will sing it, summer hay-sweet maiden,
sing to you my deep serenity,
my own faith that sounds a swelling music,
oak-leaf garland ever fresh and green.
I’ll no longer chase the will-o-wisp.
Happiness is here in my own keeping.
Day by day, life’s circle narrows, closes.
Time stands still now … weather cocks all sleeping.
Here before me lies a shadowy way
leading to a strange, an unknown place.
-Eino Leino-
(Poem translated by Aina Swan Cutler)
