After have red "Eldens hemlighetâ", a novel by Henning Mankell, I wrote this little poem. I wrote it in Swedish without thinking – And here is an attempt to translate it into English.


Sofia – An Unknown Heroine

Once
not long ago
the little girl . . .
with skin,
black, shining like ebony,
sat in the pale moonlight
hunching in the thicket
alongside a path
formed by thousands of steps
from naked feet.

She was heavily breathing
after her violent run.

A frightened little girl,
like many others at the time,
in a before prosperous country.

A country
now torned apart by conflicts,
where the pity, innocent, people
become victims of egoism
and warlords striving for power.

A country,
controlled by point of a spear.

But this little girl
Sofia
is,
despite she once stepped on a booby-trap
and lost her both legs,
happily able to sit with her sewing machine

sewing for people in her village
and the neighbourhood.

A human fate.

For us in the prosperous world,
unknown . . .

But a heroine and example
for all those complaining
of hopelessness
and who lost their fait in life.




Poetry by Carl O Andersson
Read 836 times
Written on 2007-04-05 at 13:59

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